tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72195289410176822802024-03-05T01:14:42.915-05:00The Inhabited KitchenAnnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-37277995110695665132013-11-04T15:16:00.001-05:002013-11-04T15:16:48.667-05:00News! And Lunch, to TravelI have to apologize...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1tzdaJ_k3U_NMDoFQ2gESqE5siehgopU-lyejzLXIZqtWnog31i_aZDptaupA_HWuOf4QV7Ztf90hi14jSOSSBwoY3iaXDfMExUhsbTeTy1f36TlYP8z9Y7TR1MFFyotIW7nUkoTXNiM/s1600/pot+roast,+RIch's+supper+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1tzdaJ_k3U_NMDoFQ2gESqE5siehgopU-lyejzLXIZqtWnog31i_aZDptaupA_HWuOf4QV7Ztf90hi14jSOSSBwoY3iaXDfMExUhsbTeTy1f36TlYP8z9Y7TR1MFFyotIW7nUkoTXNiM/s1600/pot+roast,+RIch's+supper+010.JPG" height="318" width="320" /></a>Rich was out of town, and I was busy with some things, and I haven't been cooking or writing much, and this site got neglected.<br />
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But I have great news!<br />
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My project has been a new site for Inhabited Kitchen!<br />
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<a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.com/" target="_blank">inhabitedkitchen.com</a><br />
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A self hosted Wordpress site, which allows me to have more features, and gives me more flexibility in the long run. I was able to get my own domain as Inhabitedkitchen, which makes the transfer easier...<br />
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Don't worry, this site will still be up, if you have linked to it. (I'm still tidying up the links on the new site...) But all the posts have moved over, and all new activity will be there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6KelF337cKH-6jdOG2XhABg6KKHGttIAXY333QO80QcYjhp8eOxhNKPC6izt5_1-GNn2qoUN1B4MGG9DOb896Ak5qb4HIVrd9e0LAWCvhIHPaDJyif76QU9QrOjPbOODGvMFRKoyJ-qo/s1600/pot+roast,+RIch's+supper+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6KelF337cKH-6jdOG2XhABg6KKHGttIAXY333QO80QcYjhp8eOxhNKPC6izt5_1-GNn2qoUN1B4MGG9DOb896Ak5qb4HIVrd9e0LAWCvhIHPaDJyif76QU9QrOjPbOODGvMFRKoyJ-qo/s1600/pot+roast,+RIch's+supper+008.JPG" /></a>Including a description of this delicious lunch I packed for Rich to travel...<br />
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See you over there, soon!<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-49569065889455661222013-10-22T13:21:00.000-04:002013-10-22T13:21:28.900-04:00Melted Onions and Quick Curried Chicken<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmpVs_MpLmA59GYFYyT2JF0T_RTCqdJi-ij8otIoEX3CDmbwFxvubpHP2koAvKgMDjOF8izATT0sa6MQdafuIYjhmL3AByqMcfWsD3wwOZeuW76ioBrkM-GXd3eupwc3RtG1I9wYPKrno/s1600/Curried+Chicken+with+greens+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmpVs_MpLmA59GYFYyT2JF0T_RTCqdJi-ij8otIoEX3CDmbwFxvubpHP2koAvKgMDjOF8izATT0sa6MQdafuIYjhmL3AByqMcfWsD3wwOZeuW76ioBrkM-GXd3eupwc3RtG1I9wYPKrno/s1600/Curried+Chicken+with+greens+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="400" width="310" /></a></div>
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Several years ago, I watched a man I knew from India make a simple chicken dish. He sliced onions very, very thin, then cooked them very slowly, in a heavy pan over low heat, until they almost melted, stirring frequently. Then he added commercial curry powder (he was not in his own kitchen - suggested it would have been a commercial masala, or spice mix, at home, but I don't know what mixture) and stirred it in. Then he browned chicken legs in the pan, added water, and simmered. about half an hour, until the chicken was fully cooked. The onion made a rich sauce, the whole thing smelled wonderful, and tasted delicious. But it took time...<br />
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The next Fall, when I could buy bags of field fresh onions at Greenmarket for little money, I remembered that, and decided the onion would be a good choice for pre-cooking. I pulled out a heavy frying pan, sliced pounds of onion almost paper thin, and cooked it up and froze it. (I then found myself going to it when I didn't feel well for cooked onion - which is the reason I then started pre-cooking ordinary <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/07/convenient-foods-and-basic-onion.html" target="_blank">sauteed onion</a>.) But it was very easy to use it to make a quick curry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-sc6ITc7dsRVjYwZjGbc5iQNNePhLDFbIISD5wOwe1Bsv-vWHIIeHJf6MNw3fFIV1agl6A-7UEhNCkmMHi3qQ54ZgbBlea3B8_NTJoFba1ry1AHuaNVJQHHYm7oiYA2gpJyfI1FsObgc/s1600/Sliced+onions+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-sc6ITc7dsRVjYwZjGbc5iQNNePhLDFbIISD5wOwe1Bsv-vWHIIeHJf6MNw3fFIV1agl6A-7UEhNCkmMHi3qQ54ZgbBlea3B8_NTJoFba1ry1AHuaNVJQHHYm7oiYA2gpJyfI1FsObgc/s1600/Sliced+onions+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>A few weeks ago, I bought my ten pound bag of beautifully fresh onions, and cooked about half of them. I cut them in half, and then cut the half again, and sliced them thinly, so they fell in fine shreds.<br />
Then I took out a big heavy enameled cast iron pan - the heaviest pan I have - heated canola oil in it, and filled it with the shredded onion. The onion cooks down incredibly, as the fresh juice simmers and concentrates, so I basically kept slicing, adding, and stirring. Once the pan was full, I put the heat as low as I could, and left it there, stirring occasionally. (I did this on a Sunday afternoon while watching a baseball game, and stirred between innings... it does take time, but most of it isn't *my* time.) The onion just kept melting into a smooth mass of savory goodness - the kitchen smelled wonderful! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ozwXHto9eNMZhSsRmnjc3u_69nslLS5lG7P4JMSoA7Xc9J0x5AXVFpDoTz5ednKMONxszAH_LHkX12FI2Vzc37xVE3-okFO8f5x7rsilAG3I3vdmuJnT5Ag1eY29HVTbEO0quEMuxJc/s1600/Melted+and+lightly+browned+onion+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ozwXHto9eNMZhSsRmnjc3u_69nslLS5lG7P4JMSoA7Xc9J0x5AXVFpDoTz5ednKMONxszAH_LHkX12FI2Vzc37xVE3-okFO8f5x7rsilAG3I3vdmuJnT5Ag1eY29HVTbEO0quEMuxJc/s1600/Melted+and+lightly+browned+onion+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Often, I stop it when all the onion is soft and transparent, but this time I let it brown a little. Be careful, though - once it starts browning stir frequently, as it can suddenly start to burn, and that would be just too sad... (I caught this one *just* in time... you may see bits of the darker brown...)<br />
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Once I had it the way I wanted, it, I turned off the heat and let it cool, then packed it in zipper bags, pressed thin, so I can easily break off pieces the size I want. It's amazing how little space five pounds of onion takes, after it is cooked down. I lay the bags flat in the freezer, and knew I had gold.<br />
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One day last week, when my schedule called for a quick and easy dinner, I decided to make curried chicken. When I got home, I took out the frozen onion, and a boneless chicken breast. I broke off a chunk of onion, and dropped it into a saute pan over a medium flame, to melt while I cut the meat up in bitesized pieces.<br />
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Once the onion was heated through, I sprinkled in some curry powder. (As I've said before, the amount is going to really vary, both with your taste and with the heat of your curry powder.) I stirred it around with the onion - sauteing the spice mixture helps bring out the flavor.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOoNNzSoayfsBVBED0zJFHSwHxXehkLJFNyKJhtU3WCmmhrNVbFfww0v5571RAd213ewm_nemSkg-oEzcBZN_MESaGCTtzuTWS5B-0Agk1Bprec99JnhOIg3xen3PeOhyphenhyphenAhjhaHV1sNM/s1600/Adding+chicken+to+onions+and+curry+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfioI4slYXO7d7yEh2p9FDEIUOFmkq9nCvMIyBXGFWKAC8oKsw4iMEJRSr7Lt9NMgDBIPhs_jtzXxvj1-ugToTOhwEYuB1c75FKrkpxXtYldwgSGMTb1cMaU7YX8bgeJv8qDqCuzFHFps/s1600/Simmering+quick+curried+chicken+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfioI4slYXO7d7yEh2p9FDEIUOFmkq9nCvMIyBXGFWKAC8oKsw4iMEJRSr7Lt9NMgDBIPhs_jtzXxvj1-ugToTOhwEYuB1c75FKrkpxXtYldwgSGMTb1cMaU7YX8bgeJv8qDqCuzFHFps/s1600/Simmering+quick+curried+chicken+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>Then I added the cut up chicken, and stirred it until it was coated with the onion-spice mix and starting to brown. I poured in half a cup of water, brought it just to a boil, then lowered the heat and let it simmer about five minutes, while I heated kale and rice I had already cooked. I tasted it to be sure I had enough curry powder, and served. The water, onion, and spice had simmered down into a rich sauce.<br />
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I don't know if my friend from Goa would approve (well - probably he would - he's very practical!) and I certainly would not claim this to be any cuisine but 21st Century New York - but it was good, and took very little time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrV4cb8cRcsS-Fqn0OKVp6r8fMW-5YZ85xcJYHzj3rCUsoVQvwVoQwSufHzhe2YYOZzbisY0qJyGlZx2FxL9PFVCWBYBHgmg_WD77a3XzWcR3UJYeJSiCBxW5EHSuYGp_66c6tl-6-PY4/s1600/Quick+curried+chicken+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrV4cb8cRcsS-Fqn0OKVp6r8fMW-5YZ85xcJYHzj3rCUsoVQvwVoQwSufHzhe2YYOZzbisY0qJyGlZx2FxL9PFVCWBYBHgmg_WD77a3XzWcR3UJYeJSiCBxW5EHSuYGp_66c6tl-6-PY4/s1600/Quick+curried+chicken+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="400" width="343" /></a></div>
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Quick Curried Chicken<br />
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1 onion, sliced thin (or a chunk of precooked Frozen Melted Onion)<br />
Canola oil if using fresh onion<br />
1 t curry powder, or to taste<br />
1/2 pound boneless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces<br />
1/2 cup water<br />
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If using fresh onion, heat oil in a pan, add the onion, and stir over low heat until absolutely soft. If using Frozen Melted Onion, place it in a pan over low heat until heated through.<br />
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Stir curry powder into the onion. Raise the heat under the pan. Add the chicken. Stir until coated with the onion spice mixture, and let brown slightly. Add water.<br />
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Simmer until chicken is cooked through, and sauce thickens - about five minutes. (This may be a little longer if you increase the recipe.)<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-14487395243247533442013-10-14T20:50:00.000-04:002013-10-14T20:50:03.165-04:00Simple Microwaved Winter Squash<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6stwaLqoRJOwYu3vwoJ2OY9NK4NjqknFxnZmlQK10j3bgGTTG6S6r2QB3kmXp_9douCczd7v46_c_-KwS7uQFq3qH9c-04dCjWhAWgAbOlv36TnaZVpf9KCzT9QLnPll0wcEkFNi1qb8/s1600/Winter+squash+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6stwaLqoRJOwYu3vwoJ2OY9NK4NjqknFxnZmlQK10j3bgGTTG6S6r2QB3kmXp_9douCczd7v46_c_-KwS7uQFq3qH9c-04dCjWhAWgAbOlv36TnaZVpf9KCzT9QLnPll0wcEkFNi1qb8/s1600/Winter+squash+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="400" width="398" /></a></div>
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Isn't that pretty?<br /><br /><br /><br />Why, yes, I do like winter squash... All kinds - this Carnival, and acorn, and butternut, and hubbard, and...<br />
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We're having a very strange year. It's October, and we're still getting corn and tomatoes. Not that I'm complaining - we love them - but... in October, I want squash.<br />
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And, sometimes, the simplest treatments are the best. I've made my soup, and I'll do many things before the season is over - but I just want to savor the taste... with maybe just a touch of butter and salt.<br /><br />My favorite preparation is to bake it - which is fine if I have the oven on anyway, and have time... The sweetness concentrates, especially if it browns a little - but it takes at least half an hour in the oven (not to mention time to preheat.) And I don't always want to heat the oven, and I don't always have the time.<br /><br />So, sometimes, it's the microwave...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUQjREGhMyZSbZgDOEgM25DFrweJpWUu1Aa3jdLrqyoYJayhNudZIgAz_w1XRLTp7-Q0YQvI4T821bXLhPtUuDD8utDKqhFyv08V87hbMJvKvMKxWJ6j0X0UXNNFghmrPKm8e6aAr_Ttg/s1600/Winter+Squash,+cooked+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUQjREGhMyZSbZgDOEgM25DFrweJpWUu1Aa3jdLrqyoYJayhNudZIgAz_w1XRLTp7-Q0YQvI4T821bXLhPtUuDD8utDKqhFyv08V87hbMJvKvMKxWJ6j0X0UXNNFghmrPKm8e6aAr_Ttg/s1600/Winter+Squash,+cooked+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="267" width="320" /></a>All I did was split the squash, and scoop out the seeds. Then I put it, cut side down, in a pyrex dish. (This was a large enough squash that we only ate half of it - I'll do something else with the other half.) I microwaved it for five minutes. At that point, I let it sit while I cooked the rest of dinner.<br />
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Shortly before everything else was ready, I took it out and turned it over, with tongs. At this point, I looked at it to see how well cooked it was - this will vary, by the size of the vegetable and the power of your stove. Poke it with a knife if you're not sure - it should be soft all through. (You'll see parts that are cooked, and parts that are still firm.) I only needed to give this one another three minutes - I find that, with my microwave, it's usually three-five. With my old one, it would have needed at least another five minutes, and maybe more... they vary a lot. When in doubt, start with less - you can always give it another few minutes. However, unlike most vegetables, it's hard to overcook this - don't worry.<br /><br />When it was done, I then split it in serving sized pieces. Added a touch of butter - and it was done. Couldn't ask for simpler.<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-89849476479223681042013-10-08T21:45:00.000-04:002013-10-08T21:45:43.516-04:00Curried Butternut Squash Soup - Theme<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIN1WAu98lcV5KTJlozYCi25cNjf3gv_1opfNcP45q8p6WiWSTFDnyZHYt7eVfsYA9DqL2p729NQtogfidVFuMYFlaephwfFj90mJ_OSFhbRDWSFZL5pWCKF6L1hpf597B10bX_vd-ADk/s1600/Butternut+Squash+Soup+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIN1WAu98lcV5KTJlozYCi25cNjf3gv_1opfNcP45q8p6WiWSTFDnyZHYt7eVfsYA9DqL2p729NQtogfidVFuMYFlaephwfFj90mJ_OSFhbRDWSFZL5pWCKF6L1hpf597B10bX_vd-ADk/s1600/Butternut+Squash+Soup+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="400" width="398" /></a></div>
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The cool weather is coming in - as are the Fall vegetables. Butternut and acorn squash instead of zucchini and pattypan, beets, carrots and parsnips joining (not yet replacing) the peppers and tomatoes...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyAZZHJoBOXY9IdtzEgqiHcVKuA6FJRr7DR_TP_PTTRIMBoXa2r5leUf9fl85gGE5Hn8AcRdQawCZ2DbUkx-sxw545zPzxy-gKRzoSZlSOPci4f_bumB8WupMZBQls76EMCbNKq88Fv4/s1600/Butternut+Squaah+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyAZZHJoBOXY9IdtzEgqiHcVKuA6FJRr7DR_TP_PTTRIMBoXa2r5leUf9fl85gGE5Hn8AcRdQawCZ2DbUkx-sxw545zPzxy-gKRzoSZlSOPci4f_bumB8WupMZBQls76EMCbNKq88Fv4/s1600/Butternut+Squaah+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a>And hot soup is starting to sound like a good idea. This is soup and salad season - lunch bridging heat and cold, creamy smooth warm soup with crunchy colorful cool salad.<br />
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This is a vegan "creme" soup I've been making for a couple of years. I'd seen some recipes for using silk tofu to make a creamy soup, or a bisque, tried the idea out a bit, and liked it... and experimented with several variations. It gives the feeling of a cream soup, with less fat and no milk, and it is ridiculously easy, as long as you have a blender or food processor.<br />
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Silk tofu is a specific type of Japanese tofu. It is most readily available in the shelf stable aseptic packs from Mori-nu. The name is a reference to the smoothness of the tofu, unlike regular, sometimes called Cotton tofu in Japan. It does <i>not </i>refer to the curds being strained through silk, as I have sometimes read... indeed, the difference is that they are not strained at all, and the whey is part of the final product. This does mean that it has less protein per ounce than the regular.<br />
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If you can't get silk tofu, regular will work, but it will not be as smooth and luscious. Use soft, rather than firm, and blend very thoroughly.<br />
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First, I cooked my squash. Since I was making soup, and wanted the liquid, I simmered it. Take the squash, peel it with a swivel blade vegetable peeler, to remove just the tough part of the peel with as little waste as possible. Then cut it down at the bulbous end, and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut the squash up into chunks, put in a large soup pot - bigger than you think you need - cover with water, add a little salt if you wish, and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, for about 15-20 minutes, until the vegetable is very soft.<br />
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Now - my directions are going to diverge... First, I'll tell you what I normally do. Then, I'll tell you what I really did this time - since a migraine hit while the squash was cooking, so I put it away for another day... And both are useful options.<br />
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Normally... When the squash is cooked, uncover it and let it cool slightly. While it cools, chop a medium onion, and saute it in a little olive oil. When it is soft, add 2 teaspoons of curry powder - more if you like it. The tofu blands out flavor, so you will want more than you usually do - but it's easier to add than to remove... Stir the curry powder with the onions over the heat for just a minute - the heat helps bring out the flavor.<br />
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Now, scrape the pan into the soup pot. Swirl a little of the squash cooking liquid in the fry pan to make sure you get all the onion and spice.<br />
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Open a 12 ounce aseptic pack of tofu and put the tofu into the soup pot. It's best to break it up into chunks at this point. (If you can actually get fresh silk tofu - available at Japanese stores, and very occasionally elsewhere, you can use it - you want about 12 ounces. 14 works. If the package is larger, but so is your squash, go for it...) Then take an immersion blender - sometimes called a stick blender - and use it to puree the squash, cooking liquid, onion mix, and tofu until smooth. Stand back a bit - it will splatter slightly, and it's still hot... (This is the reason I suggest a large pot!) If you do not have an immersion blender, definitely cool it first, and then put it, in smaller batches, in a regular blender. You shouldn't blend a hot mixture - hot liquid has been known to shoot out of blenders and scald cooks - let's not go there... It will be quite thick, and you may want/need to add liquid (especially if it is in a traditional blender.) This can be plain water, soy milk, or broth.<br />
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Now reheat the soup to serving temperature. It's a great make ahead dish for a nice dinner - do everything before now when convenient, then heat just before serving... Taste, and add more curry powder if you like. Remember, not only tastes vary - so do curry powders! Some are much hotter than others... I sprinkled just a little on top as a garnish, too...<br />
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Now - What I Really Did...<br />
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It all started the same - but as the squash was just about cooked, the migraine struck. I was actually cooking this in advance for the next night, so I just turned off the heat, lay down, and asked Rich to put the squash away in the fridge when it cooled.<br />
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The next day - I got the squash out. Instead of cooking an onion, I just used some of my handy frozen cooked onion (though that did mean I didn't heat the curry powder.) I put part of the squash, a chunk of onion, the tofu, the curry powder and some water in the blender. (Rich had drained the squash - I'd forgotten to tell him I wanted the cooking liquid in the soup.) Blended it until smooth - stopping the blender periodically to push the mixture down towards the blades, and adding more water. (<b>Always </b>stop the blender to push food down... just so many things can go wrong if you do not...) I poured most of that mixture into a pot, put the rest of the squash in the blender, and repeated the process. Mixed it all together in the pot, heated, adjusted spice (my new jar of Hot Curry Powder from a local grocery store is much milder than my old jar from the spice store. I needed to add a lot.) Served.<br />
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Now, this lends itself to variations. One fast one is - just follow the last paragraph, using two cans of pumpkin. (Or one can, and only half the tofu.) With shelf stable pumpkin and shelf stable tofu this can turn into a really useful whip together recipe for unplanned company.<br />
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Another variation is to change the spicing. I sometimes use pumpkin pie spice, or even just ginger. The taste is quite different, and equally good. And, of course, you can use any winter squash - acorn, carnival, hubbard, cheese pumpkin, whatever you have - they all taste just a little different. It can be a good use for leftover squash, if you baked a large one and need to use that Other Half... just be sure to add a lot of liquid.<br />
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It's not really a full meal soup - but great with lunch, or as a nice first course for dinner. It can really dress up a plain meal.<br />
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<b>Curried Butternut Squash Soup</b><br />
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1 butternut squash<br />
salt (opt.)<br />
1 onion<br />
olive oil to saute<br />
2 t (or more, to taste) curry powder<br />
1 12 oz. pkg. silk tofu<br />
water, soy milk, or broth, as needed<br />
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Peel and cut squash, cover with water, add salt if desired, and cook until very soft. Let cool slightly.<br />
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While it cools, saute onion in oil. Add curry powder, stir around to heat, then add onion mix to soup pot. Add tofu to pot. Use an immersion blender to puree, adding water, broth, or soy milk to achieve the desired consistency.<br />
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Heat to serving temperature.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-70031891068594899882013-10-05T14:00:00.000-04:002013-10-05T14:00:01.752-04:00Shredded PorkI still seem to be writing about that meal with <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/09/autumn-is-here-well-autumnal-equinox-is.html" target="_blank">red cabbage...</a> I really have cooked some other things, in between, but it hit several points I wanted to make.<br />
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Speaking about cooking the cabbage, I blithely said that I "added shredded pork." And where did that pork come from, you ask? My freezer of course - doesn't your freezer just produce bags of frozen cooked pork?<br />
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Well... mine does, but it needs a little help...<br />
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OK - first - what kind of pork? When I started cooking for myself, in a dorm in college, my mom took me (during move-in) to a local supermarket to get in some pantry staples and such. The meat department was full of big banner signs - they were changing their meat terminology, to bring it in line with national standards! There would be New Names for the cuts of meat! "This Cut Neither of Us had Ever Heard of" of would now be called "This Other Name We had Never Heard..."<br />
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Let me tell you - it's still not really standardized... <br />
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So - I'm talking here about a pork shoulder. I have seen them called that, Picnic Shoulders, Pernil, Boston Butt, and other things I'm not remembering offhand... and I have read statements that any one of those names is a misnomer and refers to Something Else. It is a cut frequently used for sausage, pulled pork, pernil (by New York Puerto Ricans, at least - a major online debate I found was that this is the Wrong Cut for that dish in the rest of the Hispanic world, but, like it or not, this is its primary use in my neighborhood... and the stores all call the cut pernil.)<br />
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It is high in fat, tough, a bit awkward to cut off the bone, and, therefore cheap... and it is wonderful either ground or in any long, slow, low temperature preparation. Tender and delicious - the fat largely cooks out or can be easily removed, but it keeps the meat juicy and delicious. Keep the tender pork loin for chops and roasts - you want a shoulder for this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgyM4i9VYAap2Q_3H3O2neEB2LeqAWhPSQJl3jbki6JzwyPVQIRWOiAWl7pdgzHIJEi0YZboDjDrWiHum7SejprWgGff9UtavtBAmeC3hBxMuxbjDTGmGd-Np78pmIwWoEeRY9uCfhCI/s1600/cooking+024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgyM4i9VYAap2Q_3H3O2neEB2LeqAWhPSQJl3jbki6JzwyPVQIRWOiAWl7pdgzHIJEi0YZboDjDrWiHum7SejprWgGff9UtavtBAmeC3hBxMuxbjDTGmGd-Np78pmIwWoEeRY9uCfhCI/s1600/cooking+024.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>The tricky part is that it's a large cut - seven pounds or more. (That includes both bone and fat - you end up with much less meat than that...) And it's usually sold with the big bone right there in the middle. So all that's a nuisance for a small family. On the other hand, all the preparations I mentioned are really good for making ahead. Sometimes I'll just cut off one or two large chunks of the raw meat, and freeze them, to use later in my mini slow cooker, and then simmer the rest. Or, I'll just cook the whole thing.<br />
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My preferred way to cook it is in a slow cooker - but that long bone doesn't fit in many round cookers, including the one I have right now. One reason I prefer the oval type - several kinds of food come oval - but there we are, this is what I have now. It does fit - just - in my soup pot. Sometimes I add spices, such as coriander, or allspice, but often I cook it plain, to season later.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt6kIoHIj244i0SrAlow_AK2_zOSk2ZB8OrP7BsTexXn-3i0ekVqPGYrgD9OZd2HVIseWQD7XQVXhVSds_I98DimXF5eeeWW8uK59vlnu6rhmw3TMNKtzw573BPmCnwJhegL8ky9umzyQ/s1600/Pork+shoulder+in+pot.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt6kIoHIj244i0SrAlow_AK2_zOSk2ZB8OrP7BsTexXn-3i0ekVqPGYrgD9OZd2HVIseWQD7XQVXhVSds_I98DimXF5eeeWW8uK59vlnu6rhmw3TMNKtzw573BPmCnwJhegL8ky9umzyQ/s1600/Pork+shoulder+in+pot.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>There is a big thick rind over a layer of fat along one side. If I'm simmering it, I take a very sharp knife and cut off the rind, leaving some of the fat. I'm not trying to trim it completely, at this point - just get the thick stuff off. Then I put the fat side down in the pan, and add water. I bring it to a boil, then lower to a<i> very</i> low simmer... and cook it 2-3 hours, depending on how large the cut is.<br />
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When the meat is fully cooked, it shreds. It is literally falling off the bone. I'll go in with a fork and just pull off a chunk for dinner that night... then I let the rest cool in the broth.<br />
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I don't seem to have taken a picture before I started to dismantle it. You can see, though, the awkward shape of the bone. You're not going to get nice neat slices - but the meat is falling apart, so you wouldn't anyway... Just keep pulling off chunks and shreds. I do use a carving knife and fork to do so - you see them in the background, but more to dissect than to slice. I also do now use them to cut away the big chunks of fat.<br />
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I shred the meat and put it in containers and zipped bags in the freezer. It is great to add to cooked greens such as the cabbage (OK, it was red, but - same concept.) It works very well with beans of all kinds. It's a good base for semi-traditional pulled pork or barbecue. (The meat properly should be smoked, I understand, but, if that's not an option - I've known people cook it this way, and then simmer the pulled meat with barbecue sauce.) I'll even cut the shreds a bit more and drop them into a bean soup (even a canned one... they're handy to have on hand for a quick lunch) to give it a little more oomph. The cooking liquid is also great for cooking greens or beans... We're not really used to using a pork base as a stock for soup, though it's common enough in other cultures, but it's exactly what you want for collards, for instance.<br />
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So - an evening's work, or an afternoon when I was home otherwise anyway - and I have several pounds of cooked meat ready for use in a wide variety of meals.<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-45426249240167619982013-10-01T15:56:00.000-04:002013-10-01T15:57:28.993-04:00Odds and Ends, Planned and UnplannedI live in New York City. On the East Side of Manhattan. And the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/" target="_blank">United Nations General Assembly</a> opened last week...<br />
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This may just be of mild interest to anyone who isn't in Manhattan, and isn't interested in international governance and politics. The actual Opening date, however, is of intense interest to anyone in Manhattan. All these diplomats and representatives of government from all over the world converge on New York <i>at the same time.</i> In fact, for the actual Opening, we have multiple Heads of State and/or Government. And, well - they have to get around the city somehow... securely... so traffic on the East Side is a bit of a nightmare.<br />
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This is all to explain why I waited nearly an hour for a Second Avenue bus (which normally runs every 10 minutes at that hour, after rush hour) the other day... It was a week after Opening, so the Heads of State had mostly gone home - but, it's still busy.<br />
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I knew I was going to be home late. I did a job on the Upper East Side and then, as long as I was uptown, ran some errands that I knew were going to take time. So, I had cooked rice, and some ground beef was ready for hamburgers, and I was going to saute some kale... and we'd have a fairly easy (if unimaginative) dinner in about 15-20 minutes. (Even giving me a few minutes to change clothes and have some water...)<br />
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But - when I was still waiting for the bus at 8:00, I knew I needed something even faster and easier... I called home, told Rich I'd be late, and to take a container of <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/09/ratatouille-or-using-up-vegetables.html" target="_blank">ratatouille</a> out of the freezer... (and make himself a burger and eat, if he got hungry before I got home... He chose not to.)<br />
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When I got home, I put a fry pan on the stove over medium heat, and broke up the beef into it. Added a small chunk of the <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/07/convenient-foods-and-basic-onion.html" target="_blank">frozen onion</a>, and a sprinkling of <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/09/preserving-harvest-conveniently-peppers.html" target="_blank">frozen peppers</a>. Stirred all that around while the beef browned.<br />
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Once the beef was brown, I dropped in the (still partly frozen) ratatouille. I did not choose to add tomatoes... I put a cover on it, lowered the heat a bit, and went to change clothes.<br />
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Came back, stirred, sat down and asked Rich to set the table and pour water.<br />
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Served over rice...<br />
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Did not get a picture. We were too hungry - it was late. But, you see the idea - the prepared onion, pepper, and ratatouille allowed me to fix a full meal in hardly any time at all, with hardly any effort.<br />
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OK - so - we're used to pictures...<br />
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This wasn't really a whole post - it was too simple - but the other day, I made a salad for lunch. I mixed lettuce and arugula, added my <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-often-find-myself-lately-talking-with.html" target="_blank">prechopped vegetables</a> (which included a beautiful ripe red pepper,) some feta cheese, and a simple oil and vinegar dressing.<br />
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Wow.<br />
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It was the perfect flavor explosion. It hit all the bases - sweet red pepper, salty feta, bitter arugula, and sour vinegar.<br />
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It was so good I posted on Facebook - and I don't do that - and then ran to take this picture. (Yes - I've already eaten about half of it...)<br />
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Sometimes, you just hit it right.<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-461651807259927522013-09-28T13:37:00.000-04:002013-09-28T13:37:13.946-04:00Mashed Potatoes (with Peel)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I threw in a mention of mashed potatoes last week, almost as an afterthought - but I realize I'm probably not the only person to have reached the Age of Consent (or, at any rate, Householding) without having a clue how to mash a potato.<br />
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When I was a kid, my family never ate mashed potatoes. There were two basic reasons for this.<br />
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First, we really didn't eat potatoes in any form, or pasta, or bread, very much at all. First there was the concept that starch was just what you filled up on to stretch the meat... and we were lucky enough to be able to afford as much meat as we wanted. And starch was all just Empty Calories (which wasn't so far off if you were just talking about instant mashed potatoes, or what my mom called Marshmallow Bread...) Then the first iterations of Low Carb came around, and a series of doctors put Mom on a series of severely low carb diets. (None of which had any long term effect, but that didn't seem to bother anyone but her.) So, we thought, potatoes=starch=filler=bad for you...<br />
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Secondly, my dad specifically disliked mashed potatoes. When we did eat carbs, we ate rice or noodles, occasionally baked potatoes. He married late in life, and before then ate in a series of boarding houses, faculty clubs, and restaurants - and he traveled a great deal for work, so still ate in restaurants all too often. Mom's theory was that he'd just eaten too much gluey mashed potato...<br />
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Flash forward a few years. I'd dipped my toe in vegetarianism, which changed my relationship to brown rice and whole wheat bread - and potatoes *with* the skins. And my then husband was going along with the idea... Now, I wasn't against *ever* eating meat - I just wanted to limit it - so every so often I'd try to serve him a meal that was a bit more typical of what he'd eaten growing up. Pot roast, meat loaf... and mashed potatoes. Sometimes, I admit it, I used potato flakes - but the first time I mashed a potato, I was astonished by both how easy it really is (especially if you *don't* peel it) and how much better it tasted.<br />
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So - I don't peel potatoes. Most of the vitamins are in, or directly under, the peel, and peeling wastes them. Almost all the fiber is in the peel, and peeling wastes it. So - I should take an extra step, and do extra work and fuss more, to throw away almost all the nutrition? I don't think so... On the other hand, a big clump of coarse peel can be unappealing (pun, not intentional) especially if you're serving it to people not on board with all this nutrition stuff. (People often known as Family...)<br />
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The two techniques to allow you to do this are choosing the right potato in the first place, and cutting the pieces small. (Well - you can also work the Trendy bit... I'm seeing restaurants serve them, calling them Smashed Potatoes... You, too, can Smash your fashionable potato!)<br />
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Big Idaho bakers? Save them for baking... You want the thin skinned ones. (Idahoes mash beautifully - but the skin stays pretty obvious... I'm OK with it, but other people might not be.) I usually, for just us, just use generic Potatoes sold in the bag or at the farmer's market - but to serve, say, Rich's parents, I used Yukon Gold. They mash nicely, and the skin is reliably thin.<br />
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Then, cut them fairly small before cooking. It takes a minute of cutting, but much less time than peeling, and lets the potato cook very quickly. Again, for us, I usually just cut them in eighths - or even quarters, if they're not big - but I cut them smaller for someone else. Little squares of thin skin just melt in - Rich's mother couldn't find them at all, and asked me about it!<br />
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After cutting, put them in a pot with water, cover and bring it to a boil, then simmer. Cut small like that, the potatoes cook in 10 minutes or less... It can vary, though, with both size and the particular potato, so I check every few minutes, by poking them with a knife. I want it completely tender, but not yet falling apart. I then turn it off (and leave it in the hot water, covered, until I am ready for it, as long as it is within ten minutes.)<br />
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When I'm ready to mash - usually just before serving dinner - I drain them. Then, I used a classic old fashioned potato masher... there are both this kind, and one with a squiggly sort of metal piece at the business end. If you don't have one, or are just mashing one potato, you can use a fork, but it will be a bit of a nuisance. If you're doing a lot, and have a stand mixer, I've been told that can be helpful - I think the manual has directions (though of course it assumes you've peeled the potatoes...) but I've never done that. If you do use a mixer, don't overmix - I understand that's the culprit behind the gluey potatoes in many a diner. That's not really an issue with a manual masher.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE_KhQblyHUs_rWPyrYNuKWukhHpVBlQzNPiAajuwcu6EmUouxt0IkS0aZ8Mg7y0s9_lkGkenk0dVv-ap0fOFH1RlIopIfClCnxBO3Y0Zy9dXX1C40yAFBZjHK7th5cxNWSrxowOfT3YM/s1600/Mashing+Potatoes+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE_KhQblyHUs_rWPyrYNuKWukhHpVBlQzNPiAajuwcu6EmUouxt0IkS0aZ8Mg7y0s9_lkGkenk0dVv-ap0fOFH1RlIopIfClCnxBO3Y0Zy9dXX1C40yAFBZjHK7th5cxNWSrxowOfT3YM/s1600/Mashing+Potatoes+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>It's really pretty easy. You have at it with the masher, until the potato is all crumbly. Then you add something wet... Milk is traditional. I happen to like yogurt, and that's what I used here- we like the tang - but that's a very personal taste. If you're being luxurious, and have it on hand, a bit of half and half, or cream, or sour cream is really rich... Don't use plain water if you can help it, though - it leaves it, well, watery... Most non-dairy milks should work well, too - I've used soy and it's fine. Rice milk might be a bit sweet... but that's a matter of taste. I haven't used almond milk, but I bet it would be good. The key is - a liquid with a bit of flavor.<br />
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Again, the amount will vary... I start with about a spoonful of whatever per potato. Start mashing again - and suddenly all the crumbles melt into this wonderful soft fluffy stuff, that just keeps getting fluffier as you mash. If it doesn't look quite right, add just a little more liquid - keep going until you have the texture you want, but stop before it gets runny. If you're going to put gravy on it, you probably want to keep it pretty firm - if you're just serving it by itself or maybe with a bit of butter, you may want it moister. I like having that control...<br />
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I don't seem to have gotten a picture of it all getting fluffy - I need another hand, sometimes...<br />
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But, anyhow - really easy, much better tasting, I think, than packaged flakes, and certainly more nutrition... not Just Starch, or a filler.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-70103268260012712042013-09-24T14:00:00.000-04:002013-09-24T16:06:11.218-04:00Ratatouille - or... Using Up Vegetables<br />
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I had eggplant. Oh, boy, I had eggplant..<br />
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So - ratatouille. It's a classic French dish from Provence, a stew of summer vegetables. Roughly equal amounts of eggplant, zucchini, and tomato, with onion, garlic and basil. Unlike most vegetables dishes, it's cooked until the vegetables are soft, and freezes (and reheats) beautifully.<br />
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And, well - we've been getting eggplant every week, and it's getting ahead of me.<br />
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I also had a couple of zucchini - bigger than I usually like, though still pretty tender. (I don't know how our farmer does it - we get big squash that haven't gone to seed... Choice of cultivar, I assume, but I'm not used to seeing it elsewhere.) And I had some tomatoes, though not really quite enough for the traditional proportions. (Yes - I know the home gardener usually has Too Much Zucchini. Our farmer is careful not to overwhelm us with it... and I can use a lot of it anyway, as it cooks so easily. The same concepts apply, though.)<br />
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First, let me address the tomatoes. I had several choices of how I wanted to deal with that. I could, of course, just make something else. I could make a small amount of ratatouille, using the tomatoes I had, but less of the eggplant and squash than I wanted to. I could go out and buy more tomatoes, or use a can of diced tomatoes. I could go ahead and make it with the "wrong" proportions, and either eat it or freeze it as such.<br />
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My choice was going to be dictated by my goal. If I were, for example, cooking it for a dinner party and trying to impress someone with my cooking, I'd definitely either change what I planned, or go buy tomatoes. In this case, though, the goal was to do something with all those eggplant, and maybe work down the squash, too, because this is the time of year when the CSA gets ahead of me, and I may get more vegetables than I can use that week. I like, though, to have some prepared vegetables in the freezer, for winter, or just for busy days.<br />
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I decided, therefore, to just go ahead and cook it as it was, freeze it all, and add a note that I might want to add tomatoes... which, then, I may or may not do. I can get good quality diced canned tomatoes, so that's an easy option, down the road - and, in fact, this saves me freezer space.<br />
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First, I chopped a large onion, and a big clove of garlic, and sauteed them in olive oil. I was a bit more generous with the oil than usual, as that's a traditional ingredient of ratatouille and adds richness, and I was going to want enough for the rest of the vegetables, too. I cooked them until they were just starting to soften.<br />
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Meanwhile, I cut the eggplant into big chunks. I added them to the pot, and tossed them with the onions and oil. Did the same with the zucchini. Then I chopped the tomatoes and added them. I didn't bother peeling them - we don't mind a little tomato skin in our food. <br />
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You sometimes also see directions to press out all the liquid and seeds. There are a couple of problems with that... First, the gel around the seeds has a lot of the flavor, so you'd be losing that. And, in this case, I want to have some liquid to start this - as the other vegetables cook, they will release plenty of moisture, but I want a bit of liquid in the bottom of the pan to start it. (And - well - I tend to leave out the fussier steps - but that's a matter of individual taste. They're not worth it to me - they might be to you.)<br />
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A glance at the picture will tell you that I had less than half as much tomato as I did eggplant. But that's OK... While I was working on this post, I was talking to a friend about the ratatouille she was making - she didn't know I was working on this, but we all have eggplant, it's that time of year - and she was talking about red and green peppers. Peppers? I've eaten it with peppers, but also without, and I'm not sure I ever cooked it with peppers...<br />
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I hauled out the Larousse Gastronomique I recently inherited - the arbiter of French Cooking... Yes, peppers... (though it doesn't specify red or green.) But I've certainly eaten it, prepared by others, without peppers... and I've always... wait... I've always cooked it without peppers, but I've made this since I was in my late teens or early 20s, and was still at my parents' house much of the time. And my mother was allergic to bell peppers, which means that I have absolutely no idea whether or not the first recipe I followed included peppers - I would have left them out reflexively.<br />
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A key to this sort of adaptation is understanding the major flavors of the dish. The keynote, as it were, of ratatouille is eggplant, with zucchini and tomatoes as the secondary layers. (I've always heard it described as an eggplant recipe, with Summer Vegetables coming second - never as just a zucchini recipe...) Onions, bell pepper, garlic, herbs are all grace notes. They add to the flavor, but they are not central. So I could make a delicious stew with zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers - but it would not be a ratatouille. This is - but just barely... it really should have a little more tomato to *properly* be that classic dish. So, I may serve it as is, or I may add a can of diced tomatoes - it will depend on how and when I use it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCpb5YkkDwE5MdmU__ltg6RUfmRe9-4wI8RNoEFDvi1Nu3ESUX3L6IFy2oSmOY5MpuB5TLsFcHgPSJDHkBxUOzgPJdYFEbtWz8YCQ3t_5ncLgbatLM2n6CXBR6zYaBnC4Gw3vQME1XA0/s1600/Ratatouille,+cooking+down+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCpb5YkkDwE5MdmU__ltg6RUfmRe9-4wI8RNoEFDvi1Nu3ESUX3L6IFy2oSmOY5MpuB5TLsFcHgPSJDHkBxUOzgPJdYFEbtWz8YCQ3t_5ncLgbatLM2n6CXBR6zYaBnC4Gw3vQME1XA0/s1600/Ratatouille,+cooking+down+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.JPG" width="320" /></a>Anyhow, I tossed all the vegetables in the pot, to coat them with the oil, and mix them thoroughly. Then I put a lid on, set the heat very low, and let it all simmer about 15 minutes. When I came back, the vegetables had started to shrink, and liquid was cooking out of them. I stirred them some more, and continued to simmer them, over low heat, without the cover. Oh, and I added about 2 teaspoons of crushed dried basil.<br />
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Normally, I prefer zucchini just lightly cooked, still firm, not mushy. Eggplant, though, needs to be cooked soft... and this medley works best if the texture is all the same. So, I continued simmering it until all the vegetables were soft, and the flavor had melded - and most the liquid had cooked off. If I were serving it immediately, I might have left it moister, but I didn't want to give freezer space to water, and, if I add tomatoes later, I'll be adding their liquid... I cooked it about half an hour, all together. <br />
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I let it cool, then, and packed it simply in take out containers. I'm not actually going to keep this long - I'll make another batch and freeze it in freezer containers, which let in less air and take less space in the freezer. This will just be prepared food for times I can't cook.<br />
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<b>Ratatouille</b><br />
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One large onion, chopped<br />
1 large clove of garlic, minced<br />
2 T olive oil<br />
3 medium eggplant (or one large one)<br />
2 medium zucchini<br />
4 (or more) tomatoes (Ideally, classically, the eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes should be roughly equal by weight.)<br />
2 t dried basil<br />
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Saute onion and garlic in oil until starting to soften.<br />
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Chop eggplant and zucchini into bite sized pieces. Add to the pan, and stir to coat with oil.<br />
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Chop tomatoes, add, with liquid, to pan. Stir and cover. Let simmer, covered, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.<br />
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Remove cover. Add basil. There will probably be a good bit of liquid in the pan. Let simmer without the cover until it has cooked off a little, and vegetables are done to your taste - probably another 5-10 minutes.<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-78796306480223927192013-09-21T18:10:00.001-04:002013-09-21T18:11:56.287-04:00Sweet and Sour Red CabbageAutumn is here!<br />
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Well - the Autumnal Equinox is actually tomorrow... but close enough. The season has changed... The weather started fluctuating between cool and hot a few weeks ago, but, this week, the warm spell following the cool weather was in the seventies, not the nineties. We called this weather cool a month ago - now, we think of it as warm. It's Fall...<br />
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Fall in New York City is wonderful. The air is crisp and clear, the sky turns a remarkably deep blue, with little wispy clouds drifting (or racing, often) through the air. The sun is warm and the air is cool, and it's perfect walking weather.<br />
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And it is the height of the harvest season. I'm still inundated with eggplant and tomatoes - but the winter squash is starting to come in, and cabbage, broccoli, and glorious crisp apples... And we start to be in the mood for a less summery meal.<br />
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The other day, I cooked a sweet and sour red cabbage, and added shredded pork. Served it with mashed potatoes, and it was just right for a cool evening! And it is another variation of the basic <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/08/summer-saute-theme.html" target="_blank">Sauteed Vegetables.</a><br />
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Since I was using pork anyhow, I decided to use bacon to saute the onion. I don't eat it alone very much, but I do like to use a little in cooking, sometimes - it can add a lot to a simple meal. I am able to buy "bacon ends" which is fine for me, as I'm not looking for the strips anyway. I loosen them up, and freeze the whole package - then cut off just what I need. I can easily cut it with a sharp, fairly heavy knife. Then I dice it small, and put the dice in a heavy pan over low heat so the fat will render out, and I get crisp bacon bits. (This means... the fat gradually melts, so you have liquid fat, and crisp bits. Use a low heat so it doesn't burn.) You can drain off some of the fat, if there is too much - I just use a small amount to begin with, and keep it, since I'm after the flavor. If you would rather not use bacon, just heat some olive oil.<br />
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Then I chopped a red onion, and added it to the bacon and grease. I used red largely because I had it... but also because it's a bit sweeter, and I was going for the sweet and sour taste. And, of course, the red onion is pretty with the red cabbage. I stirred it around every so often, as the onion started to soften.<br />
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I don't seem to have taken a picture of chopping the cabbage... this cooking and picture taking at the same time means I sometimes get distracted... A whole cabbage is almost always much more than I want to cook at once, for two people - so I cut off a big chunk from one end, and work with that. The rest goes back in the crisper - when I next want it, I cut a paper thin layer off the cut edge, discard it, and the rest is good to go. Meanwhile, I place my chunk on the cutting board, and slice it, so the cabbage falls in shreds. If I get to the core, I cut it out, and discard it. I may then cut the shreds in half, to make them easier to eat.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicaNUc5-RtwNxxnVhHQ4CH3hWEWD0To9R6lsh1GZfd3pPjtQqulR7vT9ByU13wgXqBDOWDuI7DLRjCn23pMEWsA-cxShTectpncF8Uovn6eNnDISG8ddtEL3rOact0gBHk61tBA0DbD18/s1600/Red+Cabbage+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicaNUc5-RtwNxxnVhHQ4CH3hWEWD0To9R6lsh1GZfd3pPjtQqulR7vT9ByU13wgXqBDOWDuI7DLRjCn23pMEWsA-cxShTectpncF8Uovn6eNnDISG8ddtEL3rOact0gBHk61tBA0DbD18/s1600/Red+Cabbage+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>I put the cabbage shreds in the pan, with the bacon and onion, and stirred it around a lot to distribute the bacon grease over as much of the cabbage as possible. I let it wilt a few minutes, then added just a splash of apple cider vinegar, for the Sour. Then I cored and chopped one of the lovely new apples (I left the skin on, but discarded core and seeds) and added it, for the Sweet. (Rich wandered into the kitchen, and said "You know, an apple would be really good in... oh ... that's an apple core, isn't it?" Two great minds in the same rut, as my father used to say...)<br />
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I covered the pan, to hold in the steam and speed up the initial cooking, then checked it after about 5 minutes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtn2LO9iQ_uyxt_F4xmj6uiTA9iih5tA_LnJECNGflEGmSZSptb_SYKWIQh-MY0m6Cgvd7U-rILrUzZZ5ta1S5qKRP2cbuI1NBDM5840YF8nGEwnlEdqA0OTZfzzNG4xt8AkhKJoCph4M/s1600/Pork+added+to+sauteed+cabbage+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtn2LO9iQ_uyxt_F4xmj6uiTA9iih5tA_LnJECNGflEGmSZSptb_SYKWIQh-MY0m6Cgvd7U-rILrUzZZ5ta1S5qKRP2cbuI1NBDM5840YF8nGEwnlEdqA0OTZfzzNG4xt8AkhKJoCph4M/s1600/Pork+added+to+sauteed+cabbage+-+Inhabited+Kitchen.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>Usually I would just cook and serve this as is, as an accompaniment to pork chops or something. In this case, I had some pork left from a pork shoulder I'd cooked. I decided that, instead of just heating and serving it plain, or trying to figure out some way to season it, I'd just throw it in the cabbage mixture. This is, of course, purely optional - but it made this meal simpler. I just put the frozen block down in the fridge a few hours earlier, and then dropped it into the cabbage. I covered the pan again, briefly, until the meat thawed (I wouldn't have, if it hadn't been still partially frozen) and stirred it in. I then let it cook until cooked to our taste.<br />
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I served it with mashed potatoes - which I'll talk about another time - but plain boiled ones would have been great. If I'd felt really energetic, potato pancakes would have been delicious - I might do that for guests, or a special occasion meal. Pork roast, probably, in that case, the cabbage, and potato pancakes... very fancy in a Good Home Cooking way...<br />
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<b>Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage</b><br />
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1 strip bacon, diced small (or substitute olive oil)<br />
1 red onion, chopped<br />
2 cups shredded red cabbage<br />
1 oz cider vinegar<br />
1 apple, cored and chopped<br />
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1/2 pound shredded cooked pork, opt.<br />
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Put finely diced bacon in a heavy pan over low heat, and cook until the fat renders out and the bacon starts to crisp. (Or, if you aren't using bacon, just heat some olive oil in the pan.) Add the onion, stir, and let cook until onion starts to soften.<br />
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Add the cabbage. Stir it around thoroughly, to coat it with the fat, and let it start to wilt slightly. Add the vinegar and the apple, stir, and cover. Remove the lid after about five minutes, then stir and cook until done to your taste.<br />
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If you wish to add the meat, do so after removing the lid. Stir in, and heat through.<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-28744742304928510222013-09-18T16:42:00.000-04:002013-09-18T16:42:27.571-04:00Preserving - and Using - Leeks (and other aromatics) ConvenientlyThis was a difficult week for me. A huge cold front came through, which is always hard on my body - especially my head. (Major, major migraine trigger.) So I didn't write my blog.<br />
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We were still eating, mind you, and I was still cooking (since we had to eat) and we were still getting large amounts of produce from the CSA, and I was still dealing with that, and I even cooked publicly! (I sometimes demonstrate cookware or kitchen appliances professionally, and I had a gig.) I just wasn't writing about any of it...<br />
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So, I'll do a quick list, here, of some of the things I did with vegetables - and discuss leeks further.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfAIkWr9boTIn4hDiUSixBLHvJKEYyHKTE7IMhnXCnt7oYpK2L4pQDINw3jh8DA-PrvP2MNs3ueTfPV9M1296wnSXEvE3zVqC8ALEczNyqOIIzWYWsojMugJ4n-TUODtD4Q5sGZAC8kQ/s1600/Leek.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfAIkWr9boTIn4hDiUSixBLHvJKEYyHKTE7IMhnXCnt7oYpK2L4pQDINw3jh8DA-PrvP2MNs3ueTfPV9M1296wnSXEvE3zVqC8ALEczNyqOIIzWYWsojMugJ4n-TUODtD4Q5sGZAC8kQ/s1600/Leek.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>Starting with the leeks. I did mention this when I <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/09/grilled-summer-vegetables-pretty-little.html" target="_blank">grilled a leek</a> with the eggplant and other vegetables. Farmers growing leeks pile sand around them, in hills, to get the long white part, as any parts exposed to the sun are green - and tougher. This means that leeks are very sandy... and a bit of a nuisance to clean. Leeks are also often quite large, and you usually buy them in bunches, and one leek is usually more than I want for just two of us. All this makes it a perfect choice for a preprep - cleaning three is no more fussy than cleaning one, I get it all over with, and I can use just the amount I want.<br />
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First, you trim the leek. Cut off the tougher green leaves. Exactly where you cut is up to you - most directions tell you to discard all the green, but I find I can use all of the light green part and sometimes several inches of the leaves before it gets too tough. (The leaves are great for soup stock, by the way...) Also cut off the root end. (Just discard that.)<br />
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Cut the leek lengthwise. This gets you in all the little crevices that sand has gathered in. Then, slice the two halves across, in half inch or so pieces. Put them in a bowl or sink of water, and swish them around like crazy, using your fingers to separate the rings. The vegetable floats, and the sand sinks, making it easy to lift out the leeks into a strainer.<br />
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I usually wash the whole bunch like this, then let them drain and dry. Then I use a large fry pan or saute pan to saute them in olive oil until they are soft. (If there is a lot, or my pan isn't big enough, I do them in a couple of batches.) I then use some that day - but set the rest aside to cool, and freeze them in freezer bags,. I find the bags work best, as I can break off the amount I need.<br />
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Another vegetable I preprepped this week (but didn't get pictures of) was celery. When I first got celery from the farmer's market, I was disappointed. I was used to big bland ribs that mostly contributed crunch in a salad, or filled with peanut butter. These had too much taste! Then I realized - they're *supposed to*... There's a reason celery is used as an aromatic in mirepoix or in Cajun cooking...<br />
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So now, when I get a bunch from the farmer, I cut off the end, keep the tender center for celery sticks and salad and all - but chop and saute the big ribs. Again, I do it all at once - we just don't use enough celery in a week to finish it while it's fresh, but we like having the addition to our meals for the next month or more. Again, I saute a pan full at a time, and freeze it, and break pieces off when I need them.<br />
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When I had a little time - and some energy - I chopped and sauteed leeks, celery, and onions. I chopped and froze more hot peppers. I could do that with sweet peppers, too, but I haven't - I just wash and chop enough for my salads. Which I also did - I filled my little containers with sweet peppers, celery hearts, radishes, scallions, and cucumber, for <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-often-find-myself-lately-talking-with.html" target="_blank">salads.</a><br />
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When I didn't have energy, I pulled containers from the freezer with cooked ground meat or shredded cooked pork. I put precooked onion and celery, and frozen peppers, in a pan, heated them, cut up a zucchini or something equally easy, and sauteed it. Then I added the cooked meat, perhaps a tomato, heated it through, and called it dinner...<br />
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So, even on the days I felt horrible, I ate reasonably well. When I did have energy, I used small amounts of time to get ahead a step, so that when I didn't have energy, I had options. And we always had a nice meal.<br />
<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-85423130058915676502013-09-10T15:55:00.001-04:002013-09-10T15:55:47.641-04:00Peanut Sauce, over Tofu and Broccoli, and Tofu TutorialThe fastest and easiest way to pull several disparate foods together into a Real Meal is to add a sauce.<br />
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You can pour it on top. (Gravy.) You can cook one or more components in it, for the flavor. (Spaghetti and meatballs, macaroni and cheese.) You can use it to hold everything together. (Mayonnaise in countless salads.) Sauces add seasoning to bland foods, moisture to dry foods, and interest to everything.<br />
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A very quick and easy one I learned many years ago is a simple peanut sauce. This was making the rounds of vegetarian sources back in the 80s - inspired by an Indonesian dish, gado-gado. Well - most books called it gado-gado, but it isn't, really... (With the wonders of the internet, you can look up real gado-gado. It looks delicious - but it's not this quick and mindless...)<br />
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That said - here is a simple vegetarian dish made interesting by an easy sauce, which, several levels removed, was vaguely inspired by an Indonesian food...<br />
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I used tofu. Chicken works well, too, or, really, almost any meat or fish I can think of. Tempeh has the advantage of being, even... Indonesian! The basic meal is some kind of protein, with some kind of vegetable, cooked in, or served under, a peanut sauce, the whole thing served over rice. In this case, I cooked the sauce separately from everything else, and poured it over.<br />
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For this, I prefer a firm tofu. For years I read, and ignored, instructions to put slabs of tofu on a slanted board with weights on it to make it firmer. Do it if you want - too much fuss for me... Then I learned a method of simply wrapping it in a clean kitchen towel (or even paper towels, if you must, but the paper gets soggy) and letting it sit on the drain board while you chop onions or start the rice or whatever your first step in cooking is. I find that just that little bit of time and attention makes a big difference in the end product - it's firmer, and browns nicely, and seems to get a bit more flavor from whatever it is cooked with. (If you prefer a soft tofu, don't do this - that's a different method, I'll talk about it another time.)<br />
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So, I wrapped my tofu and set it aside. Then, I sauteed an onion in a little olive oil, and added a bit of the chopped hot pepper I froze. I let them cook until just soft. Then I unwrapped my tofu, diced it, and added it to the pan.<br />
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If you use a stainless steel or enameled pan, the tofu will stick, at first. If you try to stir it too soon, the cooked browned bits will peel off the cubes, and it's messy looking (though fine to eat.) It feels counter-intuitive - but if it sticks, leave it for a while longer. When the side touching the pan becomes firm and golden, it will magically release, and you get the nice cubes (or slabs) of browned tofu. *Then* stir it around, so the other sides have a chance to do the same - and the vegetables also move around and soften.<br />
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Meanwhile - I heated brown rice, and steamed broccoli... (If I'd been cooking the rice fresh, I'd have started it first.)<br />
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I used natural peanut butter - just peanuts and salt, thank you... I scooped up a big spoonful for each of us - a heaping tablespoon per person, basically - and put it in the pan with about a cup of water, and a splash of soy sauce. (OK - true confession - this was more than a splash. There is something wrong with the plastic insert in my soy sauce bottle... This was Way Too Much soy sauce. Tasted OK, but... not Great... saltier than we'd usually want... This means that, when you do it, the sauce will have a lighter peanut color. Don't be surprised.) Normally, at this point, I'd also add some Tabasco or other hot sauce, but this time I'd put hot peppers with the tofu, so I skipped it.<br />
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I heated the mixture, stirring. (I use a silicone spatula - it's great for scraping the pan.) At first, it looks pretty awful, with blobs of PB in the liquid, but it emulsifies quickly, and then thickens surprisingly. You may even find that you want to add more water, in a bit, if it gets too thick. Once it is heated through, and smooth, just pour it over the rest of the food. For family service, it can be put in a sauceboat on the table - let everyone help themselves.<br />
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I did this separately, so you could see how the sauce itself works, and that it can be used in many ways. I often, though, just add the water and peanut butter to the tofu or chicken or whatever in the pan, and go from there. I may even have all the vegetables in that mix, as well. That probably works better for just one or two, though.<br />
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<b>Peanut Sauce</b><br />
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<b>Per Serving - </b><br />
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1/2 c water<br />
1 1/2 T natural peanut butter<br />
1/2 t soy sauce<br />
dash hot sauce - opt.<br />
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Put all ingredients - using roughly those amounts per person - into a pan over medium heat. Stir while heating, until sauce becomes smooth and thickens. Add more water, if needed.<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-28498514702609016262013-09-07T15:02:00.001-04:002013-09-07T15:02:50.006-04:00Preserving the Harvest - Conveniently - Peppers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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People are starting to return to the idea of putting up their own produce. People are canning, again - even here in Manhattan, high end cookware stores carry canning kettles and jars. In their desire for local food, people are buying produce and canning it, or making jams and pickles.<br />
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Yeah - I'm not going there...<br />
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OK, understand - if you enjoy it, it can be a cool thing to do. If you have your own garden, and the time and energy, it's wonderful. If you have a good source of produce, and like to cook, it's a great and productive hobby. I have, in my day, made small batches of pickles and chutneys. I thought it was fun, and I enjoyed having them in winter. That's not what this blog is about, though...<br />
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I've discussed my take on <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/07/convenient-foods-and-basic-onion.html" target="_blank">Convenient Foods.</a> This is an elaboration of that, with the seasonal nature of produce added. For example - in August and September in the Northeast, we get lots and lots (and lots...) of hot peppers. I can't use them all at once... In fact, cooking for two, I don't always want even one whole pepper (depending on the dish and the type of pepper.) But I can chop them, put them in a freezer bag, and then sprinkle a little out at a time, and add a bit of zip to our meals for months. I've never found I needed to cook them first - they cook rapidly, and I haven't had them deteriorate in the few months I store them. (Most vegetables do need to be blanched or sauteed to kill enzymes.)<br />
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We interrupt this blog to give the Pepper Warning.<br />
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Hot peppers are - HOT. When cut, they exude capsaicin, which sticks to your fingers. It burns. This is easily avoided... so avoid it. Wear gloves, do small amounts at one time. Most of this won't bother most people *too* much chopping one pepper at a time. But sensitivities vary, and it will still cause a great deal of discomfort, and doing it all in advance means you never have to worry about it again...<br />
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Wear gloves. These can be rubber dishwashing gloves, or latex (or other) food handlers' gloves. Even with the gloves, be aware that you have transferred oil to anything you touched - including the hand that took the glove off... and to any objects you are now picking up.<br />
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Wearing the gloves, you still need to be very careful about not touching your face. We tend to do that without thinking - brush a hair away, push up glasses, scratch a nose... heaven forfend, rub an eye... Don't! The skin on your face is more reactive than most other skin. Do Not Touch your Eye. I was planning this post a few weeks ago, though didn't have a chance to shoot pictures and write it up then. I was thinking about this, while chopping peppers - and five minutes later cleverly rubbed my eye (I had hay fever) and felt pretty foolish... Remove contacts *before* handling peppers, unless you can be certain there will be *many* hours before you need to. (A friend told me that...) When you are done, wash your hands thoroughly with soap - and *still* be careful for a couple of hours.<br />
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Do not (how to put this delicately...) touch mucous membranes - your own or anyone else's. (You don't want to know...) That includes mouth and lips, by the way... don't pick up a piece of cheese and pop it into your mouth - or your child's. (Children are more sensitive than adults.) Don't lick your fingers 10 minutes later.<br />
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Now that I've scared you all... I usually actually don't bother with gloves. I have small hands, and have trouble getting them to fit, and feel more control without them - so I try to be careful and, unfortunately, accept a certain amount of a burning sensation. As I said, though, different people react with greater or lesser severity - start by being cautious. Still, none of this (usually) does any actual damage - you just really don't want to hurt if you don't have to.<br /><br />The easiest way to do it - the way I do so much of this - is to just chop a few at a time. Get 5-6 peppers from the market or CSA? Chop 3 this evening, toss a bit into tonight's dinner and the rest into a freezer bag, do the same in another couple of days... takes maybe five minutes (if that) more than you would have spent on tonight's dinner anyway... This time, I had a lot, so I did about a dozen - but you don't have to.<br />
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You often hear that the hottest part of the pepper is the seeds. That's not exactly true - the hottest part is the whitish pith that surrounds the seeds. Removing the seeds *and* much of the pith is generally a good idea... I cut the pepper lengthwise, and then use the tip of the knife to sort of scrape out the seeds and pith (the knife helps me avoid touching it, as well as cutting any thick parts.)<br />
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Then I chop the peppers into pretty small pieces - you don't want to suddenly bite down on a big hunk o'pepper in your sauce - and scoop them with a knife or a spatula into the bag. One handy thing is that I find I can just keep adding, and replenishing - you can see this bag has been used a lot. I do periodically empty and wash it. And I do use up all the peppers at some sad point in midwinter...<br />
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I flatten the bag, and lay it flat in the freezer. The bits don't stick together - after they freeze, I can put the bag, with all the peppers in the bottom, on the freezer door. That is where I keep all my assorted flavor boosts. They're easy to find, and don't get in the way of, or get confused with, the other food. I don't want to have to push through frozen peppers and leeks and celery and parsley to find the cooked kale for tonight's dinner!<br />
<br />I like being able to add a bit of heat without it being any big deal at all - I just drop a little in with my onion and/or other aromatics. I like having that summer taste in December. I like that mixing the different kinds evens out the heat a little - we get a wide variety, as you see, and some are much hotter than others. If I have them mixed, I don't accidentally get a fiery dish from using the same amount as I did of another kind last week... And, really, I like the attractive variety of colors. Don't they look festive?Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-74519802076628134022013-09-03T14:19:00.001-04:002013-09-03T14:20:13.605-04:00Grilled Summer Vegetables - Pretty Little Eggplant... <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We got the cutest little eggplants from the CSA... </div>
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I don't normally go all ecstatic over Cute - but really, aren't these adorable? Delicate, tiny little things, streaked with lavender, almost too pretty to eat.<br />
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I couldn't see just simmering them into a sauce, or mushing them up into baba ganoush or some other spread. They had to stay intact. So I decided to grill them.<br />
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I also had a patty pan squash. The other day, I wrote that I haven't really found an attractive way to cut them - but then I'd thought of slicing them to preserve the flower shape, and grilling the slices. Put the ideas together - and I had this leek I'd already trimmed (so it would fit in the vegetable keeper...) and I had a dinner concept.<br />
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I washed the eggplants, and cut them lengthwise, to preserve the shape. Then I sliced the squash horizontally, so I had flower shaped discs. I could, of course, use the same treatment on any slices of eggplant or summer squash - I have, in the past. It's particularly good, though, for preserving the appearance of an attractive vegetable.<br />
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I sliced the leek lengthwise, too. I'll go into this in more detail another time - but leeks should always be slit up the middle. The way the farmer gets the nice long white part is to hill sand up around the growing plant (a process called blanching.) Since they are grown buried in sand, they get sand inside the plant, and it is almost impossible to wash all the grit out leaving the layers intact. Usually, I slit them up the middle and then slice them, but you can also, as I did here, slit them while leaving the root end intact, and then wash thoroughly under running water, to get all the grit out from inside the leek. (You can see the sand and grit in this picture... that is normal, but it did all wash out.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgei3M7DtyRTLpktfxcVwGRnsq37Sa-1hTlen_SalDIWsC7pUoPCjkuefHzY2BIoXwRtttSnf7VeDpj9Pg7E1xNx-_3xwjt7g3Uo4rWlqZTpvS3pZTH2q1zYhjh8BERq1Is3ZouI7WUHwo/s1600/brushing+with+oil.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgei3M7DtyRTLpktfxcVwGRnsq37Sa-1hTlen_SalDIWsC7pUoPCjkuefHzY2BIoXwRtttSnf7VeDpj9Pg7E1xNx-_3xwjt7g3Uo4rWlqZTpvS3pZTH2q1zYhjh8BERq1Is3ZouI7WUHwo/s1600/brushing+with+oil.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>I find that grilled vegetables, even on a grill pan (rather than an outside grill, which I do not have) cook better with just a little oil brushed over them. In this case, I put a splash of olive oil in a bowl, and then added just a drizzle of sesame oil for flavor.<br />
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I used an open pan - this could also be done with one of the closed grill pans - George Foreman is well known, but Cuisinart has one, also, and there are others. The vegetables will cook more quickly in one of them, partly because heat is being applied to both sides, and partly because the natural steam is being held in to some degree - an advantage with the vegetables. The disadvantage to them, though, is that bigger pieces hold the top up, so it doesn't touch the thinner or smaller pieces. They work best when all slices of food are the same thickness, which was not the case here. (If you don't have a grill of any kind, you can do this in any good skillet - the whole side will brown nicely, instead of giving you pretty grill marks, but that doesn't make a serious difference.)<br />
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Anyhow, I used a pastry brush, and lightly brushed one side of the vegetables with the oil mix, then put them oiled side down, on a preheated pan. I wanted the pan to be hot when the veg first hit it - that's what gives you the nice browning effect. Then I brushed the side facing up with oil, so it would be ready when I flipped it over.<br />
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Unfortunately, as they cooked, the eggplants did lose the pretty lavender color... oh, well. They made up for that by attaining the pretty brown grill marks... I watched them, and, as the individual vegetables showed signs of softening (and changing color) I turned them over with tongs.<br />
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I had more than fit on the pan, so, as they then cooked, I removed them to a platter, which I covered to keep them warm. I was cooking potatoes and leftover ham for the rest of the meal, so I microwaved the potatoes until mostly but not completely cooked, then sliced them and added them to the grill pan for browning. (In my microwave, that was 2 minutes for four small/medium potatoes, then turn them over and give them another 2 minutes. I find that timing varies considerable by oven, though - that would have taken a minute or two longer in my previous one.) Meanwhile, I heated the ham in a fry pan, until it, too, browned.<br />
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Notes for future - the leek was basically cooked, but a little bit chewy, still. Another time, I might start it well before the more tender vegetables, or parboil it, or (more simply) microwave it a minute or two, as I did the potatoes, to, essentially, parboil it.<br />
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Also, Rich said he felt the ratio of skin to meat on the eggplants was a little high. Well... He suggested peeling them, and I suggested that he was welcome to peel a dozen tiny ones if he really wanted to, though I wasn't sure how much eggplant that would leave, and... The real issue was that, while the meat was tender, the peel was just slightly tougher - so parboiling might be an option for them, also. (I didn't mind it. OTOH, in general, he likes eggplant better than I do, so keeping him really liking it is worth something.) Of course, if I were just grilling slices of larger eggplant, which would be more common, none of that would be relevant. On the whole, we did like it, and felt it came out well, as an experiment.<br />
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The other thing we were experimenting with was taking pictures. I do want to improve them, and Rich is the photographer in the house. So he hauled out a tripod, so we could try available light, instead of flash... and you see the results. (Now we're working on another light source...)<br />
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Meanwhile, though - this is a *tiny* kitchen. The building was built in the late Forties, as part of the G.I. housing rush, at the height of the fascination with the inefficient Efficiency Kitchen. Two people cannot work together in this kitchen. (Two people can barely stand together in this kitchen!) So, there we were - him and me and the tripod, with not really enough room for any two of the above, when the Big Cat (all 20 pounds of him) decided to join us, and stretched out smack in the middle. So helpful... He's going to Inhabit that Kitchen, all right!<br />
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<b>Grilled Summer Vegetables</b><br />
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Assorted vegetables - eggplant, summer squash, leeks, onions, potatoes, whatever is on hand, and suits your taste.<br />
1 T olive oil<br />
1/2 tsp sesame oil<br />
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Wash vegetables, and slice into appropriate shapes. If desired, microwave or parboil tougher vegetables, until barely cooked, so they cook in much the same time as the more tender ones.<br />
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Heat grill pan. Mix the oils in a bowl. Use a pastry or basting brush to brush the oil very lightly on one side of the vegetables. Place the vegetables on the hot pan, oiled side down. Brush the other side with oil.<br />
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As each piece cooks (determine by color and tenderness) turn it over. If you need more than one batch, removed cooked pieces to a platter, and cover lightly with a clean towel, to keep warm.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-74156154257270894592013-08-31T12:43:00.000-04:002013-08-31T12:43:40.670-04:00Vegetables From Space!!!Some vegetables just look so... Cool. Or do I mean weird? Kind of a great still life, but... does anyone really know how to cook them? Or even what they are?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIs-y40kbFaiWrMZDUoB3sGx629e__gtsor3yKuSOAdLbEnzG6B1eTn0JL1dYUpXc7ghIYeWbON9CSi5fH2suJfstEf8uMULeBxZ9CYEVqfpQU0RAd_B1fMiKbVNxuURjpV98ZtbIyXFE/s1600/Flying+Vegetables!+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIs-y40kbFaiWrMZDUoB3sGx629e__gtsor3yKuSOAdLbEnzG6B1eTn0JL1dYUpXc7ghIYeWbON9CSi5fH2suJfstEf8uMULeBxZ9CYEVqfpQU0RAd_B1fMiKbVNxuURjpV98ZtbIyXFE/s1600/Flying+Vegetables!+(2).JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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And are we sure they're not some alien life form? All right - I'm going to date myself, here - child of the Sixties that I am, that picture looks to me as if those things landed from outer space to sit on my dish towel. (Though they're a bit more colorful than most pictures of UFOs I remember seeing... let alone real space capsules.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSdhci3awmRfFdTZy1wPze6MpdYQlkOESXdd78o0O5MLdIciiDlKfi5gRFeClzLIUCqOl0y-NLcxxIVJfBlseMun9y4SqrCjrmNSmVcOtH9R6h7dfXQNf7vn_wlmis64Rb4kg2GUnmNk/s1600/Flying+Vegetables!.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSdhci3awmRfFdTZy1wPze6MpdYQlkOESXdd78o0O5MLdIciiDlKfi5gRFeClzLIUCqOl0y-NLcxxIVJfBlseMun9y4SqrCjrmNSmVcOtH9R6h7dfXQNf7vn_wlmis64Rb4kg2GUnmNk/s1600/Flying+Vegetables!.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>The Flying Saucer - on the left - is a patty pan squash. It's a regular summer squash, just like zucchini, or crookneck. Just cut it up and cook it the same way. No, I do not have pictures of a suggested way to cut it - I've never found a way I was particularly pleased with - just hack it into chunks.<br />
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If you get some that are small enough, they can be cooked whole, and that's really attractive. I was even served them as an appetizer at a very nice wedding, once! Specialty stores do sometimes sell baby squash (at a premium, of course) for the purpose. I have not had luck with cooking a standard one whole - the outside seems to get soggy before the middle is done. One of these days, I'll experiment with stuffing one, as people stuff large zucchini, but I've never really stuffed vegetables much, so don't have anything yet. I can see it being a very nice presentation, though...<br />
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Sputnik, on the right (no, I don't actually remember Sputnik, but it was part of the general culture of my childhood) is a kohlrabi. Actually, the stems have been snapped off this one - the resemblance is much stronger when it still has stems sticking out at all angles! And they come in purple, too - one of the farmers here had piles of green and purple ones all winter.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lOIP7Vh4AnqyWaok5lArHcHzbIJe8TrzWYWkTQW6cb-AfmCBZ17shQCx35LSar70n-B5skKqMoOavYceJoG3-Cojsn-d4ffddqHalI2pO8bx0ERNK72ghMUMzRE_7cVHGKhNV4jQbZo/s1600/purple+kohlrabi+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lOIP7Vh4AnqyWaok5lArHcHzbIJe8TrzWYWkTQW6cb-AfmCBZ17shQCx35LSar70n-B5skKqMoOavYceJoG3-Cojsn-d4ffddqHalI2pO8bx0ERNK72ghMUMzRE_7cVHGKhNV4jQbZo/s1600/purple+kohlrabi+008.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
(Ah - here's a purple Sputnik...)<br />
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Five years ago, I'd heard the word Kohlrabi, but could no more have told you how to cook it than, in fact, how to build Sputnik. I was walking past them at Greenmarket... and then I got some, at the CSA. Time to learn.<br />
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Well, I was missing out.<br />
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It's almost two different vegetables. Now, in Summer, the kohlrabi I'm getting are young and tender, crisp and juicy, and I cut them up raw for salads. They have a very slight bite - much less than a radish, but enough to be interesting, and they are very pleasantly crunchy. As the year goes on, though (and as we move out of salad season... see, it works...) they become harder and more fibrous, and need cooking. A light saute at first, and then, in winter, I simmer them as I would a carrot. <br />
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Even the young, tender ones need to be peeled, though. I'm normally all for scrubbing vegetables instead of peeling them, as so much of the nutrition lies in or just under the skin, but some peels are just inedible, and this is one.<br />
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I can't even use my swivel peeler for a paper thin paring... this peel is thick and tough and fibery, and if it gets into your dish, you find yourself spitting out stringy bits - very unpleasant. Luckily, once you cut it, the peel is quite visible - no guesswork needed. It is a darker color, and the tender center is very pale. (And the purple ones are only purple in the peel - the middle is very pale green.)<br />
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Once I peel them, I just cut them in cubes or rectangles - again, rather like carrot sticks. Right now, the texture is more like a very juicy radish, so I want them bite sized for my salads - not a thin slice, but enough to crunch. A half moon shape would be fun, too, if you have some small enough.<br />
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What vegetable have you seen at the market (or gotten at the CSA!) that intimidates you? Or that you just don't have a clue about... what is it, how do you cook it, will you even like it???<br />
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I now must go forth and venture where, well, where *I* have never gone before, though many fine cooks have... the tomatillo. I just saw an intriguing recipe on another blog - <a href="http://noteatingoutinny.com/2013/08/27/summer-succotash-with-tomatillo-sauce/" target="_blank">Not Eating Out in NY</a> . It is, logically, perfectly seasonal here - but I'll probably tweak it... my CSA doesn't give me many beans. (Eggplant, now... I wonder what it would be like with eggplant...) But, for the first time, I feel I can make something other than salsa verde.<br />
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Adventures in vegetables!Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-27886808714673954492013-08-27T14:00:00.000-04:002013-08-27T14:00:01.162-04:00In Search Of - Creamy Salad Dressing! I eat salad - a lot. I eat salads for lunch all summer. With a different assortment of vegetables every week, it never feels repetitive or boring, it readily lends itself to preprep and fast assembly, and it's a great way to eat a lot of lovely fresh vegetables.<br />
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And I like to make my own salad dressings. It seems silly to me to pay for an oil and vinegar based dressing when I can make a better, fresher one at home in five minutes (or less) for much less money and with better ingredients.<br />
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But I'm missing one thing - creamy salad dressings. See, when I carry a lunch, and eat in a park, I prefer the thicker dressings. I have a nice little Tupperware leakproof container for my dressing - but then, I pour it into a salad container that... well... is not totally leakproof... I eat it from that, and that's fine, but I don't have facilities to clean it in the park, and I've found that an oil and vinegar dressing does, sometimes, leak - just a tiny bit, but still... and a creamy thick one does not. So I've been using commercial dressings for that - and I wanted to try something different.<br />
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The problem was that most thick dressings are mayonnaise based, and I was making something specifically to carry on a hot day. Now, I don't really carry it long - my schedule swings a bit late in the day - and, if it's really hot, or I'll have it out a while, I do use a thermal bag and ice pack. But still... I didn't want to make something I'd always have to pay attention to, and I know all the mayo based food poisoning horror stories... I decided I wanted to find something else.<br />
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First, I decided to try with a bunch of dill. I'd looked up recipes and suggestions, and people seemed to be using Greek Yogurt, which is nice and thick... So I copped the dill, and put it in a mini food processor.<br />
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Processed it a minute, then added yogurt, and just a touch of olive oil to help it cling. Processed that until smooth - it was delicious.<br />
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The yogurt is tangy in a very different way than vinegar, and it was really good. But it was also really wet... the processing took away the thickness of the yogurt, even after it had chilled again. So, good, I'll make it again - but not what I was looking for.<br />
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Thinking... I saw a suggestion for making one with a fresh tomato, which sounded really good. But... wet... Then I remembered, back in the "All Fat is Evil" nineties, blending cottage cheese and yogurt to make a thick, creamy dip - which people always seemed to really like. That was the texture I was looking for... so...<br />
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I only want to make a small amount, with the fresh tomato, as it should be used up in a few days. So, I put 1/4 cup of that Greek yogurt, and a 1/4 cup of natural cottage cheese (without stabilizers - they'll affect the texture adversely - see Note) in a blender with half a very ripe tomato.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6vAEOllFReCKYdsmzPBrasc75PpjIvoYgVESwzP_3wftccimRACExi3uQEH_Z5phybNaqZVybvqCu2VZFs4-o7vzATXcufV9L-YrwgbDqHPAH-Qq-Zwb0zIvDW_ns0XoA5hVchbc1SQ/s1600/Tomato+dressing,+v.+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6vAEOllFReCKYdsmzPBrasc75PpjIvoYgVESwzP_3wftccimRACExi3uQEH_Z5phybNaqZVybvqCu2VZFs4-o7vzATXcufV9L-YrwgbDqHPAH-Qq-Zwb0zIvDW_ns0XoA5hVchbc1SQ/s1600/Tomato+dressing,+v.+1.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>Blended it until smooth, then added a sprinkle of dried basil. (Dried, mostly because that's what I had, but also because pink flecked with green is pretty - pink with green fully blended in is muddy...)<br />
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Again, delicious, and thicker than the dill, but still too runny. Oh, right - the tomato made it runny... of course!<br />
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Well, two possible approaches here. One is just to go ahead with that recipe, but using fresh (or dried) herbs or other flavoring instead of tomato. And I plan to do that, one of these days... But the other, since we are well into tomato season, and they're just bursting with flavor, is to keep on trying to find a creamy tomato dressing.<br />
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OK - the basic idea was sound - adjust proportions?<br />
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I used half a cup of cottage cheese, this time. I added a heaping spoonful of Greek Yogurt, for the tang, , and a tablespoon of olive oil (which I'd forgotten last time) remembering that even a little helps the dressing cling to leaves. I blended that - and then, again, stirred in the dried basil. Oh - I didn't add any salt - there is some already in the cottage cheese.<br />
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We have a winner! Even right out of the blender, it was thick and creamy - chilling it let it thicken again even a bit more (after the blending made it runny.) And I thought it really tasted good.<br />
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I hope showing you the experimentation I used helps. I started knowing enough that nothing was bad, nothing was at all a waste of food or time, but I found the way to make exactly what I wanted, which was not any recipe I had seen. (I have no doubt someone else has figured out something like this - cooking works that way, we're all using the same ingredients and methods - but I haven't seen it...)<br />
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Note: Cottage cheese. I use Friendship, which is a local brand in the East Coast. Its ingredients are basically milk (in various forms - skimmed, cream, selection varies by type of cheese) salt, and enzymes (and these days they pack it with carbon dioxide to keep out oxygen, for freshness.) That's what I grew up eating - and I was confused to find other cottage cheeses that had a different mouthfeel... and seemed... runnier... and didn't work as well in my recipes... Well - many companies, even organic ones, now use stabilizers, such as food starch and guar gum. So far as I can tell, they drain off less of the whey, and then use thickeners. At any rate, I find cottage cheese with stabilizers too runny to cook well with - it affects the texture of the final product. I have no idea what brands might make a natural cottage cheese in the rest of the country, but you may want to read labels, and know that ingredients affect results.<br />
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Now - in this recipe, the food starch and gum thickeners may in fact work. I did use a brand with them to make smoothies at one point, and it was fine - but it was too wet, when I tried to make a cheese tart. I don't have it on hand to try, though. I really suggest you see if you can find a brand local to you that is just cheese, for cooking, at least.<br />
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<b>Creamy Tomato Salad Dressing</b><br /><br />1/2 cup cottage cheese<br />
1 T Greek yogurt<br />
1 T olive oil<br />
1/2 large, ripe tomato (or 1 small one,) cut up<br />
1 t dried basil<br />
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Combine first four ingredients in a blender jar Blend until smooth. Stir in basil.<br />
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-67996216280915873182013-08-24T15:09:00.000-04:002013-08-31T12:45:01.533-04:00Theme: Chicken Vegetable SoupIt's August in New York City. It's hot, and humid, and sticky, and miserable, and... 60 degrees??<br />
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Well, every few years, in the middle of our proverbial dog days of Summer, we get just a few days of Fall weather, just to tease us, before the weather returns to the usual oven. It's a wonderful respite, and really helps for the rest of the summer, too, as the concrete and brick cools off and stops radiating heat at us. You can't count on it, it won't last, but... it is lovely...<br />
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Well, we had a few days like that last week. And I had a container of <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/05/theme-braised-chicken.html" target="_blank">chicken stock in the freezer, and some cooked chicken, </a> and some odds and ends of both raw and cooked vegetables - and I thought a bowl of a light soup would be a nice addition to lunch.<br />
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I looked in the fridge, and assembled my ingredients. Half an onion, half a celery stalk, half a carrot (remember, I'm cooking for two. Sometimes a whole onion or carrot is just too much...) Chicken, and chicken stock. Leftover greens, frozen in cubes.<br />
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What? Well... with two of us, a whole bunch of kale or chard is usually too much for one meal, especially as I often serve other vegetables as well. So we freeze the leftovers. My favorite trick, actually, is to freeze them in muffin pans - that gives me little half cup muffins of greens... little manageable chunks. This time, the freezer had been full, though, and we really had some tiny bits, so Rich (he cleans up, since I cook) put them away in little ice cube holders. (They were my grandmother's - they're useful for all sorts of odd little bits of things... but if you don't have them there are many small containers you can use.) I usually pop them out into a zippered freezer bag the next day, and assemble a bag of muffins and cubes of various cooked greens. They're useful when we carry a meal, they're my go to for Anne Can't Cook nights, and they're a great size to toss into other dishes.<br />
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So, anyway... I got everything together, and put a pot over heat. The chicken fat (there wasn't much) had risen to the top of the stock. I used a spoon to scrape off some of it, and put it in the pan to saute the vegetables. You can scrape all of it off, if you want, and, if there had been a lot of it, I'd have discarded some, but a lot of the flavor is in that fat. It makes more sense to me to just use some of it, instead of adding oil. If I were using packaged stock, which is usually lower in fat, I'd just grease the pan with olive oil.<br />
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I chopped the onion, celery, and carrot (<a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/08/summer-saute-theme.html" target="_blank">Aromatics, </a> remember?) and put them in the pot. Let them saute just a little, while I chopped the frozen greens. This is one feature I really like about the cubes and muffins rather than one thick chunk - I find them easy to chop more finely, which I want if I add them to soup or a sauce. Let's avoid long strings of kale dripping out of spoons, shall we? They get messy... Then I added the greens to the pot.<br />
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Anyhow, when the aromatics had softened a little I popped in the chunk of frozen stock. As it was thawing, I knew I would need more than a pint of broth, and I wanted it to have plenty of flavor, so I crumbled and threw in some dried shitake mushrooms. We're lucky enough to be able to shop in Japanese stores where they are inexpensive, we love mushrooms, and they are very useful for quickly adding some flavor to a broth or sauce. Soup base or seasonings would also be an option here (or just a larger container of stock, if you have one...) Since I was using mushrooms, and not a seasoned soup base, I also added a dash of salt.<br />
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While the frozen broth continued to melt, I chopped a piece of the cooked chicken. The soup wasn't going to be a whole meal, so I just put in a little - for flavor, as much as anything else. I added it, then, when the broth was mostly melted, added about a cup of water.<br />
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Then I just put on a lid, left it on medium heat until it all simmered about 5 to 10 minutes and all the vegetables were tender, and called it soup.<br />
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This kind of soup is a great way to fill out a meal. I use it as part of lunch, as I did here - but it is also a way to get a bit more vegetable, or meat, or... whatever... into a meal that is light on that food group. (I didn't add a grain or bean, this time - but that's easy...) Or - there is *almost* but not *quite* enough of that casserole left for dinner... or "Of course you can come over!" Or, most often, probably, just that you want to Do Something with those bits and pieces without it feeling like leftovers.<br />
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Now, the point of this is to let you cook without a recipe - but I know that, for beginners, it can be easier to have a written out recipe. So I'm adding that, here - and I'm doubling it, instead of actually *calling for* those half pieces of vegetables... but, remember - that's what you can use...<br />
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<b>Recipe - Chicken Vegetable Soup</b><br />
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1 onion<br />
1 carrot<br />
1 rib celery<br />
olive oil (opt.)<br />
1 c cooked greens (any assortment - kale, chard, spinach, beet greens - whatever you have on hand)<br />
1 qt. chicken stock or broth<br />
4 dried shitake mushrooms (or 1 t soup base)<br />
salt, to taste<br />
6 oz cooked chicken<br />
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Chop onion, carrots and celery.<br />
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Grease the pan with either the fat from homemade stock, or olive oil. Saute the aromatics for a few minutes, until they start to soften.<br />
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Chop the greens finely, add them to the pot.<br />
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Add stock, and mushrooms or soup base (breaking the mushrooms up into small pieces.) Add another 2 cups of water.<br />
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Chop chicken into small chunks, and add to pot.<br />
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Let simmer about 10 minutes, until all vegetables are softened and flavor is blended.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-31437244615917223672013-08-20T13:57:00.000-04:002013-08-20T13:57:39.916-04:00Variation on a Theme: New York Collards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wrote about the way I generally <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/07/theme-basic-greens.html" target="_blank">cook greens.</a> I like spinach, chard, beet greens, even mustard greens and kale cooked with the light saute and barely simmer method.<br />
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You may (or may not...) have noticed that I didn't mention collard greens...<br />
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I didn't grow up eating collard greens. My mother, somewhat unusually among people we knew, did cook beet greens in the country (when she could get them,) so I did always know how good they were - but pot greens in general, and collards especially just weren't on the middle class Manhattan Irish radar. I started buying them from farmer's markets as a young woman, but I cooked them the same way I cooked other greens - and didn't like them. They always were tough and unpleasant... and it took me - well, let's be honest - it took me *years* to accept that the problem was my cooking method. Maybe all those Southerners who boil them were onto something...<br />
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So, I started asking around. There seemed a wide variety of precise recipes and methods, but there were constants. Start the same way I do, with sauteing washed greens in a pan, but perhaps use just a little more fat - enough to be sure all the chopped leaves do wilt in it. And most recipes made it something with flavor - bacon or some such - or added other flavorful meat to the pan - smoked pork or turkey, for example. The big difference, though, comes now - add liquid, usually broth, and simmer for a good while - perhaps half an hour, on a very low flame. And many people then serve them with some sort of hot sauce.<br />
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Well, I tried that, and it was certainly an improvement. So I've cooked them like that for several years. But... I don't usually have smoked pork in the house... and... well...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDVtLADakB3SWWhzH2pUFWDInmDKgHyJAREtmmHyK_Eg_tcPWz6QfjSrI8_k1eEEJZBCc3voQk0EQRV5M04fhqippPoqKAcnJ8M4Vz0-A1K-pZoZStdi-jWt-MLDwWmknOqqN4nPf9RE/s1600/045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDVtLADakB3SWWhzH2pUFWDInmDKgHyJAREtmmHyK_Eg_tcPWz6QfjSrI8_k1eEEJZBCc3voQk0EQRV5M04fhqippPoqKAcnJ8M4Vz0-A1K-pZoZStdi-jWt-MLDwWmknOqqN4nPf9RE/s1600/045.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>I had hot Italian sausage. It's a flavorful pork product, it contains fat that cooks out, it even had the pepper built in... I couldn't see any reason that wouldn't work...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR6quA3Rv4Z4zrq7_Ha3dzAOo8yWgl5Fs6hvCvn1TMGQAlZ3rowAI0WgIsRMR3tm1NuerTFPiaDYD7pTcFrbZI_EZiF93HjXGTLRo-OZakRTMRYqCQZzkrQbdsxu-xqL8gss8kL7_bj7E/s1600/051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR6quA3Rv4Z4zrq7_Ha3dzAOo8yWgl5Fs6hvCvn1TMGQAlZ3rowAI0WgIsRMR3tm1NuerTFPiaDYD7pTcFrbZI_EZiF93HjXGTLRo-OZakRTMRYqCQZzkrQbdsxu-xqL8gss8kL7_bj7E/s1600/051.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>I cut up the sausage, and dropped it into my heated pan. Then I chopped an onion, and stirred it in, as enough fat cooked out of the sausage so that the onion wouldn't stick, and could brown. Stirred them both around, as the meat and onion browned.<br />
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While they cooked, I washed and chopped my collards, as I did in the Basic Greens. The one major difference is that I do always remove the stems of collards - they're just too tough and stringy. I didn't have to let as much of the water drip off as I do using the other method - after all, I was going to be simmering them - but I did want most of it off. Then, when they were no longer actively dripping, and the meat and onion were browned, I dumped the collards in the pan. I used the tongs to stir them around very thoroughly. As the collards touch the hot fat, they turn a bright green - very attractive looking. I kept stirring until all the chopped leaves were bright green and slightly wilted. (in the picture, you can see some bright and wilted, and some, at the edges, that are still fully raw.)<br />
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Then I added water, heated it up, and let the whole thing simmer. As the greens cook, the color darkens. My goal is to let them simmer (and darken) until tender, but catch them just before they turn a dull olive green, which is overcooked, to my taste. That's fairly personal, though - many people like them that soft. I find it usually takes a bit under half an hour - I check regularly after about 20 minutes.I know that some people do cook them as long as an hour, though.<br />
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Then you eat that delicious cooking liquid, as well as the greens. That's the traditional "pot likker" sopped up with bread or served over potatoes and grits - or rice, in my case, or pasta, or...<br />
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Recipe:<br />
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1/2 pound hot Italian sausage<br />
1 small onion<br />
olive oil (opt., as needed)<br />
I bunch collard greens, chopped and washed, stems removed<br />
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Cut up the sausage and the onion.<br />
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Brown the sausage in a large fry pan or saute pan, until fat cooks out. (Depending on your source for sausage - if there isn't enough fat to fully grease the pan, add a little olive oil now.) Add the onion, stir to mix with the meat, and saute over low to medium heat until the meat is browned and the onion starts to turn golden.<br />
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Add collards. Stir around with the sausage mixture until coated with fat, and let cook, stirring often, until the leaves are a bright green. Add about a cup of water. Bring to a simmer, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for about half an hour, until cooked to taste.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-62321341652213280202013-08-16T14:00:00.000-04:002013-08-16T14:00:04.577-04:00Browned meat with Beans (and no time...)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In a post last week, I described the situations in which I might used <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/08/convenient-food-browned-ground-meat.html" target="_blank">precooked browned meat.</a> </div>
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I then promptly hit the trifecta... </div>
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I was delayed on a job, and got home late. With a (very mild) migraine. And I had a container of cooked beans in the refrigerator... which could be the basis for dinner, but were not, alone, enough. </div>
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But, I had my cooked meat with onions...<br />
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I broke off a chunk, and dropped it in a pan.(I didn't even bother to heat the pan first...)<br />
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If I'd been more together, at this point I might have added any spices, such as cumin, or hot pepper, which I might want to heat. This time, I didn't bother...<br />
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I poured in the beans, and bean cooking liquid.<br />
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I routinely cook enough beans for more than one meal, so I have some to use later. This time, as you see, I was using up odds and ends... (OK - so, I could claim this is my Three Bean Special. It was odds and ends dumped in the same jar until I had enough to use... This time - kidney, navy, and garbanzo beans... maybe a couple of pintos?)<br />
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If I were using canned beans, which would work just fine, I'd drain them and rinse them off. The starches that accumulate in the can are one of the causes of... um... digestive disturbances, shall we say... for some people. I'm never bothered by beans I cook myself, but I sometimes have trouble with canned beans - one reason I usually cook my own. I do find that cooking them a little longer, not just heating them up, also helps prevent problems.<br /><br />If I were using canned beans, I'd also add a little water - I want it just a bit soupy, to begin with, because I'm going to simmer it all a bit, and I don't want it to stick.<br />
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I sat down for a few minutes, while it heated, and the meat thawed.<br />
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I then cut up a yellow summer squash, and tossed it in, and let it all cook for about five minutes, until the squash was just tender. (I sat down...) I also had a small container of some broccoli rabe from dinner the day before - I tossed the cooked greens in. Then I just stirred it together until everything was heated up, and served over rice I had handy (Yes - I cook enough brown rice for 2-3 meals at a time, also - it heats up beautifully in the microwave.)<br />
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I had Rich take pictures every time I stopped (and sat down a minute...) while that step cooked. Neither of us remembered a picture of the plated food. It wasn't, to be honest, particularly pretty - though not bad, with the green and yellow vegetables - but it tasted awfully good for something that was ready in 15-20 minutes - including breaks for the cook to rest...<br />
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I could still, of course, write this up as a Recipe - but that isn't the point. The point, here, is cooking within the constraints you face. What time and energy do I have? How much cooked or canned beans do I have? What's a vegetable that will take little or no effort? I have the frozen cooked meat...<br />
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How would your family like it? Would it need to be something recognizable - say, chili - for them? In which case - chili powder in the pan with the meat, kidney or pinto beans, a can of tomatoes added with the beans, and other veg on the side. Not your Prizewinning Chile Recipe - but something fast the kids will eat...<br />
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Or - skip the beans, use more meat, add a jar of decent commercial pasta sauce. I'd go ahead and add the squash and rabe (though I'd chop the greens a bit more) and serve it over pasta. We always have a jar or two of commercial sauce in the pantry, just in case... though I usually make my own, when I have time and energy. (We often have a container or two of that in the freezer - but not always.) If I didn't have the jarred sauce (or didn't want to use one) I'd use plain canned diced or crushed tomatoes, and crush in some basil and oregano. Like the "chili" - not exciting, not as much flavor as I'd usually like, but it works.<br />
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Or... What would you do with something like this, for your family?Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-53544329767113682412013-08-13T11:59:00.000-04:002013-08-13T11:59:41.838-04:00Summer Saute - Theme<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sometimes a meal just tastes like a season, to me...</div>
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We have corn, now, and zucchini... We have the first tomatoes, now, and are glorying in them raw in salad, but I'm not cooking them, yet. That comes later, with abundance.<br />
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I get most of my vegetables from the CSA, but I stop at Greenmarket to buy fruit, and occasionally fill in something specific I need. Last week, one of the farmers had beautiful shallots - at the same price as yellow onions! So I bought some.<br />
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When I started to cook, I chopped a few shallots and dropped them into my prepared pan. My what?<br />
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I put a frying pan or saute pan over medium heat, and let it heat for a minute or two, while I chop my onion/garlic/shallots. Then I pour in a very small amount of olive oil, and rotate the pan - the heated pan warms the oil and lets it spread all over the pan quite easily, so there is a film of oil covering the surface. I really use a teaspoon or even less... even in multi-ply stainless steel or cast iron.<br />
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Then I add the aromatics. That's a handy phrase for a variety of vegetables used, in this context, mostly for flavoring. Onions and garlic, other aliums such as shallots, or leeks, but also peppers (either sweet or hot,) celery, sometimes finely diced carrot... Which ones you choose strongly affect the flavor of the finished dish - enough that simply varying them can change a whole meal.<br />
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I've mentioned combining flavors in traditional ways. The choice of aromatics is so traditional that it has names in several cultures. French mirepoix is onion, carrots, and celery. The sofrito I've heard about from neighbors was onion, garlic, and hot pepper - but I gather that varies widely in different Caribbean cultures, and is different still back in Spain. The Cajun combination (sometimes referred to as the Holy Trinity) is onion, garlic and green pepper. And, of course, you can use your own selection, dictated by family tradition, desired taste on the day, mood, or simply what you have on hand. (The latter, of course, is a major influence on all the traditional mixtures - we're fortunate enough to have choices.)<br />
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So, anyhow, I cook the aromatics, usually just until soft. (And, in this case, I only used the shallots, not a mixture.) Then I add the rest of the vegetables.<br />
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I had zucchini from the CSA.<br />
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This is a Japanese cutting technique called a roll cut. I learned it back when I was first cooking, and have used it routinely ever since for round vegetables like carrots and summer squash. It creates irregularly shaped chunks with a lot of surface area, and I find it allows the vegetable to cook very evenly. When I was a child, I didn't like zucchini, because it was often cooked to mush. This technique helps prevent parts becoming mushy before the rest is soft.<br />
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Basically, you cut the vegetable at an angle, instead of slicing it. Then you roll it slightly, so the knife, held at the same angle, is now cutting the vegetable at a different angle. This gives you oddly shaped chunks, with a great deal of surface.<br />
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And, of course, you can slice or cut your vegetables into cubes - it's your cooking, do whatever you and your family like!<br />
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I then added the zucchini to the hot pan with the onion. (This all took much less time to do than to explain...) I stirred it around, and let it cook.<br />
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The abundance of summer... corn... We've had corn on the cob, but sometimes we have a single ear, sometimes I can't use it for a day or two (so even supersweet isn't at its peak,) sometimes I just want it off the cob... And it is (not surprisingly) a wonderful combination with the other midsummer vegetables.</div>
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In this case, I took an ear of corn, <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/08/corn-on-cob-in-microwave.html" target="_blank">microwaved it</a> just three minutes, and let it cool a little still in the husk. I then cut off the kernels. You can, of course, cut it raw, but I've found that cooking it slightly makes them easier to cut (without getting them all over your kitchen...) I added the corn to the pan with the now softened zucchini, and scraped the ear to get all the germ and milk.<br />
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The corn was already mostly cooked, so I stirred it around until everything was heated through, and cooked to our taste.<br />
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Then I served it with small boiled new potatoes, and a piece of roast chicken. The perfect summer meal!<br />
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<b>Summer Saute</b><br />
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olive oil for pan<br />
4 shallots<br />
2 small zucchini<br />
1 ear of corn, slightly cooked if desired,<br />
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Heat the pan over medium heat while chopping shallots. Oil the pan, add shallots. Stir.<br />
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Cut up zucchini. Add to pan. Stir.<br />
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Cut corn kernels from cob. Add corn to pan when zucchini and shallots are almost cooked to your taste. Stir.<br />
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Cook until all vegetables are cooked to your taste - usually just another few minutes.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-22217303868240868922013-08-09T11:46:00.000-04:002013-08-09T11:46:08.547-04:00Convenient Food: Browned ground meat with onion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As I've said before, one reason I keep convenient foods on hand is so that I can always put a meal together with very little time or effort.</div>
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I have several situations driving this need. For one thing, I have chronic migraine. They're mild, as migraines go, but I never know either when I'm going to get one, or how disabling it will be. I can have a lovely meal planned out, and then find that I'm not able to do more than throw a few ingredients together - or even that I'm just going to Lie Down Now, and tell Rich to Make Dinner Happen. I need a backup plan for those nights.<br />
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On a happier note, I sometimes need something after a day at work. I freelance, and, while some of my gigs are by the hour, some are by the job. I go in, and do the set job, however long it takes. Usually it is pretty predictable, but sometimes I'll hit a snag, and get home an hour or two later than I had expected. Then I need something fast - I may have been planning to start the brown rice, and chop the onion, and cut the chicken, but now I want something on the table in 15 minutes. (And, of course - that is everyday reality for many people. I'm in a position to serve a late dinner - most schedules don't allow that.)</div>
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Enter browned and cooked ground meat - with or without onion already added. I buy ground meat in so-called Family Packs, which save me money. I'll use some right away, and freeze some raw for later use - but I always brown a good chunk of it right away, and then freeze the precooked crumbles. Then Rich can break off a chunk and put it in a commercial pasta sauce, over pasta, with frozen vegetables (either commercial or leftovers we freeze) and I don't have to do anything.<br />
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Or, when I get home late, I can just saute some vegetables, add this, serve it over heated commercial polenta (a commercial convenience food I keep on hand, for this reason - it's still a whole food, it sits in the pantry, and it's ready to go in a couple of minutes. Sure, I can make polenta myself - and I do, when it's a planned meal with plenty of time to cook - but this is to avoid takeout...) <br />
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The cooked meat is also useful if I am making a bean dish, that I feel needs just a little boost in protein. This way, I don't have to use another pan, take time for another step - I just break off a bit, and let it heat right in the simmering beans. Another time, I might add hard cooked eggs, or cheese... I like to have choices. <br />
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I usually (but not always) saute some onions just slightly, first. Most dishes I use this in will benefit from a little onion - but, if I don't have them handy, or I'm in a rush, I can leave out this step. I just cook them until they soften a little, as I don't want them overcooked.<br />
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Then I break up the meat. Now, you may notice, I keep saying "meat" - not just "beef" or "hamburger." I often mix two kinds of meat, here - half beef and half turkey or chicken, for example. The mixture is lower in fat than beef alone, but more juicy and flavorful than turkey alone. (Turkey is also usually less expensive - I'm all for stretching budgets...) As it happens, though, these pictures are just of beef.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHz0WP_pMKeo-V3IowGIUWzYwf9SwKHdl850bW0gPsQJqRoF_RFaNkBCpL9JNPNEocvmfHOvX5KRKV3RzI-aVol2Le5llMZh4w5X-s1EUk5q8U2V1W0jcFT9d5Bzf3iv_Jbq2JLv_jWbM/s1600/browned+ground+beef+(8).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHz0WP_pMKeo-V3IowGIUWzYwf9SwKHdl850bW0gPsQJqRoF_RFaNkBCpL9JNPNEocvmfHOvX5KRKV3RzI-aVol2Le5llMZh4w5X-s1EUk5q8U2V1W0jcFT9d5Bzf3iv_Jbq2JLv_jWbM/s1600/browned+ground+beef+(8).JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>The pan is already hot from sauteing the onions. If I didn't cook onions, I heat the pan, over medium heat, before adding the meat, so it will brown nicely. I break the meat up in little bits, and sort of sprinkle them over the pan, to maximize surface. I let them sit a while, and then stir occasionally, until it is brown.<br />
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I find a lot of ground meat these days has a surprising amount of water in it. I hadn't cooked much meat for many years (and when I did, I wasn't cooking hamburgers) so I really noticed the difference when I started again. So, as the meat cooks, you should be getting some grease cooking out, but you may also get liquid. I let it cook off, as much as I can (and I try to find sources that don't make me pay for water...) When the meat is brown and cooked, though, if there is much liquid in the pan (fat or water or a mixture) I pour it off.<br />
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I have seen suggestions that you then rinse the crumbles under hot water, to remove as much fat as possible. That's also going to remove a great deal of the flavor, so I would not recommend it under normal circumstances. I mention it, though, as it might be useful for someone who needs to be on a very low fat and cholesterol diet... Mixing the meats and rinsing might be an occasional alternative to avoiding beef altogether.<br />
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Then I let the meat cool. After it is cooled, I bag it in zipper freezer bags. I press the air out, then flatten the bags, and lay them on their sides to freeze, so that I end up with a thinnish slab of frozen food. I find that I can break off pieces, that way, and use the amount I want at any one time. </div>
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Plain looking for a lifesaver, isn't it? But a couple of those bags in the freezer give me a base for a wide variety of quick, easy meals, as needed. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvP3ZQ_rwXnwxe7WmyUjRM9znCsBSkUBiSIf59LVcpATGNyOimLoJPG8sHa4b9ss6KSFo4jey-9_gYtfFy942Pm0VVj4qRlnwUMK03hXcKaWlCwWMWFSXyKFfhIj-puBcueDdCN3pUeY/s1600/browned+ground+beef+(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvP3ZQ_rwXnwxe7WmyUjRM9znCsBSkUBiSIf59LVcpATGNyOimLoJPG8sHa4b9ss6KSFo4jey-9_gYtfFy942Pm0VVj4qRlnwUMK03hXcKaWlCwWMWFSXyKFfhIj-puBcueDdCN3pUeY/s1600/browned+ground+beef+(6).JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-22085658701384803012013-08-06T18:00:00.000-04:002013-08-06T18:00:05.528-04:00Mustard salad dressing - VariationThere are several classic variations of the traditional oil and wine vinegar French dressing. One of the simplest is a similar dressing, with mustard added. The mustard helps the oil and vinegar emulsify, which can be helpful if you don't have a shaker bottle, and it adds a little bite. I like it with traditional chef's salads, or one with hard cooked eggs, or plain beans, while I prefer the <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/06/theme-salad-dressing-variation-herb.html" target="_blank">herb dressing</a> with feta cheese, or chicken. Just my own preferences - you may differ! And, in fact, I use whichever is on hand - but my choice of which to make can be driven by what I'm going to be eating in the next week.<br />
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I use cider vinegar for this. Normally, I use wine vinegar, and that certainly works, but I like this combination. I tend to look at traditional flavorways when I am improvising. Mustard was commonly used in Northern European cooking, where apples were more common than grapes, and cider vinegar more common than wine vinegar, and the flavors go well together. I'm not consistent, though - I still use olive oil!<br />
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I pour the vinegar into a measuring cup. It's convenient to mix it right there in the cup - I'm measuring as I go, and only using one container. Then I mix in 1 teaspoon of prepared mustard. Here, I used a commercial grainy Dijon - but you can use whatever kind you like. Varying the mustard itself varies the taste of the dressing - a grainy horseradish blend will be more assertive than a smooth yellow mustard. Whatever you have in the refrigerator is presumably what you like, and any will do, here.<br />
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I love that there are so many kinds of mustard. It makes it easy to give variety to simple meals. The change of condiment makes a plain cheese sandwich different. When I first lived away from New York City, local supermarkets had lots of space, and very little variety - there would be a whole aisle with only two national brands of mustard. Perfectly good themselves, mind you - but I was used to a choice! The tiny store I shopped in while growing up had about three feet of shelving for mustard - and half a dozen brands with 10-15 flavors overall. All in small jars... I understand, though, that now stores offer a greater assortment, as consumers demand more. I know that the stores I went to in New Jersey had started to carry the variety I had expected, shortly before I moved back to New York. And, if you normally only use one or two kinds, it might be fun to try something a little different.<br />
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Anyway... I mix the spoonful of mustard into the vinegar first, as it may dissolve more readily, then add oil. Pour it into the container. Again, if I'm using a container that I know holds 8 ounces, I mix slightly less than the full 2/3 of a cup in the measuring cup, and top it off in the bottle. If I'm keeping it in a jar or covered bowl, I'll mix it all in the cup.<br />
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And there you are. Again, a truly fresh dressing to put on your lovely fresh salad, made in just a few minutes. </div>
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Oh - I store this at room temperature. The oil will solidify in the refrigerator, and there is nothing in it that needs to be kept cool for short term storage. It's rather nice (in a prettier bottle than this one) on the table. That's one advantage to the emulsification caused by the mustard. It will separate over time, but you can shake a bottle, or stir a spoon in a container, and it stays together long enough to serve yourself, while a regular oil and vinegar dressing will separate instantly, and can leave you pouring oil on your salad. </div>
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<b>Mustard Salad Dressing</b></div>
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1/3 c cider vinegar</div>
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1 tsp. prepared mustard</div>
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2/3 cup olive oil</div>
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Mix all ingredients, in order. </div>
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Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-25480934952688218422013-08-02T19:07:00.000-04:002013-08-31T12:46:54.669-04:00Corn on the cob - in the microwave?!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I grew up eating fresh corn only when we went to my grandmother's in the country. That was dairy country - Central New York - and all the farmers grew huge fields of field corn, as well as hay, as winter fodder for their cows. And around the cornfields, they would plant a row or two of sweet corn, for their own use, and for sale. The stalks weren't as tall, they ripened a little earlier, and every August, you'd see stands selling them. We could buy it from the grocery store in the little village, we could buy it from the farm stand where we bought most of our vegetables - but you'd also see, at the edge of the road along a field, an overturned crate with a bushel of corn and a handwritten sign - "Sweet corn - $1/dozen." (Yes, this was when I was a girl - it's higher, now.) You left your dollar in the mason jar next to the bushel basket, picked out your dozen, rushed them home and into the fridge, and ate them that night.<br />
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Granny had a big old pot - I think she may have used it for canning when she was younger. We would fill it with water, put it on to boil, and my brother and I would shuck the dozen ears, right before cooking them. There were five of us, so we'd cook five ears at a time, for about five minutes at a time, putting the second batch in when we pulled out the first, and usually he and I got the extra two... We never ate corn unless we knew it had been picked that day - and usually went to the farm stand, where we knew it hadn't been sitting in the sun. Even a few hours made a difference in sweetness, as the natural sugar in the corn turned to starch.<br />
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Enter the new supersweet corn varieties. They don't turn to starch as quickly as the old cultivars, but still have good flavor. I still don't buy them in a supermarket, but if I can't eat them the very day I get them from the farm market or CSA, they're still good - and that day, they're sweeter than the ears that sat out in the sun in those bushel baskets, when I was a girl.<br />
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I have bought corn at Greenmarket, or eaten it from the CSA. I shucked it right before cooking, as I'd been taught (Don't ever remove the husks when you buy them - they help keep it fresh!) and boiled it in my soup pot - two ears at a time, for just two of us, now.<br />
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Then,, we were visiting Rich's parents, and they had corn bought at the supermarket. (I was polite, but not hopeful...) I offered to shuck it, but his mom said no - she was cooking it in the microwave. (Now I was really skeptical...)<br />
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Well - I was wrong. It was astonishingly good, and quite easy. And I said "Please, ma'am, teach me!"<br />
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Basically, I leave the ear in the husk, and the steam generated from the kernels itself cooks the corn. I don't need to cook the cob, after all, just the kernels themselves. This method doesn't lose any flavor to the cooking water, it means I don't have to boil a large pot of water in midsummer, the steamed silk comes off easily. Removing the hot husks is a bit tricky - though I cheat - I get Rich to do that...<br />
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I take each individual ear of corn. If I bought it from Greenmarket, I will have pulled the end open a little, to make sure the ear has filled out - and that there are no bugs (left over caution from those bushels on the side of the road - I don't think I've ever found bugs in corn at Greenmarket.) For this method, though, I need to make sure I don't open it very far, and straighten it up, and close the end, as it has to hold the steam.<br />
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Then I use a heavy knife to trim the ends - cut off most of the stalk (but leave a bit for a handle) and much of the silk at the end. Again, though, I make sure the husk encloses the corn.<br />
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Now, the problem with microwave recipes is that the timing varies a great deal. Some microwaves have more power than others, cooking three ears will be totally different from cooking two, and so on. So, all I can tell you is what I do. I find that, in our current microwave, cooking two ears for five minutes seems about right. The first ears of the season - still milky,and so tender - I cooked about four and a half minutes. Corn I get late in the season (or an ear that has sat for a few days, if I have schedule problems) gets five and a half or even six, if I think it is getting starchy.<br />
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Then Rich takes over... That blue thing in the picture below is a silicone pot holder, which is the best choice for holding anything steamy, as it does not itself get soggy and scalding. He holds the ear with it in one hand (sorry - I forgot to get pictures...) and, very carefully, pulls the husk back with the other, carefully avoiding the steam rushing out. The steam is really the only hard part, though, as the husk peels off much more easily than it does on a raw ear - it has been softened in the cooking. The silk also just mostly peels right off with the husk, and any left just comes off with a brief rub with a clean dishtowel.<br />
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This ear is a butter and sugar or bicolored type, which I've always fancied - often thought to be less starchy, though I'm not sure I've really found a difference. Brings me back to childhood, though...<br />
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Butter, salt or a seasoned salt, freshly ground pepper... and I know that it is midsummer, and that, even in the heat of the city, that is a wonderful thing.<br />
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Edited to add: In the interests of giving credit where it is due...<br />
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Rich read this, and told me his mom learned the method from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Gourmet-Barbara-Kafka/dp/068806843X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376151877&sr=8-2&keywords=barbara+kafka+microwave+gourmet" target="_blank">Microwave Gourmet</a> by Barbara Kafka. (That's a link to one edition on Amazon, so you can see the book - it doesn't appear to be currently in print. They seem to have several editions, from several vendors. And no, that's not an affiliate link - I don't have an affiliation...)Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-36276133835004441952013-07-31T17:15:00.000-04:002013-07-31T17:15:49.062-04:00Theme: Basic greensJust as I started getting this going - wouldn't you know, my computer died. And took two weeks worth of pictures with it... Oh, well, this was the stage to have that happen - and learn how to make sure it doesn't happen again!<br />
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I do now have some computer access again - and some new pictures. And here I start, yet again.<br />
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The CSA is well under way, and we've had many bunches of cooking greens. Chard, kale, broccoli rabe, beet greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, radish greens (Yes, you can eat them - I didn't know that myself, until recently!) and collards. This is my preferred basic cooking method for all but the toughest. I don't personally like mature collards cooked this way - but some do. (A friend just ate the first collards she ever liked, sauteing them with this method...) I'll write about them, later.<br />
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The washing method is key. I use this to wash lettuce and other salad greens, too. Vegetables from a CSA or farmer's market haven't usually made the detour supermarket vegetables may have made to a washing plant - where everything is made nice and clean, at the loss of another day or so of freshness, more handling, another layer of expense... I don't mind washing the sand from my own kale, but I need to be sure I actually do so.<br />
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Take a bunch of greens. I prefer to chop them before washing, though you can do it the other way around. Trim the ends and any tough parts of the stems. I eat most of the stems of most vegetables, but I remove them if they are getting stringy. Chop the greens if desired.<br />
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Fill a sink or a large bowl with water. Place the greens in the water, swish them around, and lift them out. This does a much better job of leaving dirt and grit behind than rinsing them in a colander does. Then place the greens in a strainer or colander to drip dry. Chop them now, if you wish, and haven’t already.<br />
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Take a large saute pan or frying pan, and heat it. Add a little olive oil (about a teaspoon or less) to the pan, and let it heat slightly. Put the greens in the pan, with still just a little water clinging to the leaves, and toss them around in the oil. (A pair of cooking tongs is the easiest way to do this, but you can stir with a spatula or spoon, as well.) You want all of the greens to come into contact with the oil.<br />
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As they cook, you will see them start to become a darker green. When they are thoroughly tossed, let them continue to simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until they are cooked to your taste. (I prefer a dark but bright green, not yet olive colored. If you are not sure, cook less to begin with - you can always cook more later.) Note that the vegetables also cook down considerably - a large bunch usually gives us just two or three generous servings.<br />
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Variations of this are very easy. The simplest is to saute onion, garlic, or other aromatics in the oil before adding the greens - I almost always do this. Other, flavorful cooking fats, such as a single chopped slice of bacon, substituted for the olive oil, add flavor. (Butter burns too easily - if you really want that taste, say, with a delicate green such as spinach, mix half olive oil and half butter.) A splash of good vinegar or pepper sauce at the end is tasty.<br />
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And, of course, each different vegetable itself has a very different taste. Spinach, for example, is radically different than the equally tender but slightly bitter broccoli rabe - and they are both different from kale. It can even be interesting to mix several kinds, such as assertive mustard greens with milder, sweeter chard. Even though we have some form of sauteed greens several times a week, it never feels repetitive - too much variation in taste.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-24970611580377119152013-07-09T11:49:00.000-04:002013-07-09T11:49:15.855-04:00Convenient foods - and Basic Onion TutorialI see a lot of discussion - well, argument... indeed, perhaps battles - about Convenience Food.<br />
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One the one hand, some claim it to be the Root of All Evil. Additives! Sodium! Fat! Ingredients your grandmother never heard of! (That one confuses me, mildly. My grandmother never heard of many foods I eat... urad dal, miso, nachos... I know what people mean, but it's not what they say.)<br />
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On the other hand, many people have no idea how to manage without frozen dinners, canned soups, and takeout. Some never really learned how to cook, some never really liked to cook (which is, you know, valid) and some think cooking must be elaborate and complex - something you do on a weekend, as a hobby, for guests, but not something they have the luxury of doing on a weeknight, after a long day at work.<br />
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I'm trying to hit the middle, here. I want to keep control of what I am eating, and I don't want to pay a lot for Corporate Food to do my thinking (and some prep work) for me. I do, however, need to get dinner on the table every night. And I have chronic migraine, which means that I sometimes need to either cook with some level of pain, low energy and a fuzzy brain, or point my (non-cooking) Richard at the kitchen and tell him to make dinner happen without direction. Both require simplicity.<br />
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The first part of this is defining which commercial convenience foods I am willing to use, and in what circumstances. One thing we have to remember is how many of our basic foods really are convenience foods, even though we don't usually think of them that way. Take bread. Bread has been baked commercially for millennia. Ancient Romans bought bread. Ancient Egyptians bought bread, even earlier. It is something that has always been easier and more efficient to make in bulk, so, in cities and towns and population centers of any kind, it was baked by bakers. On the other hand, I often bake bread, doubtless some of you have done the same. I can do without commercial bread - but I do not *have* to. If I'm busy, if I don't feel well, if it's too hot to light my oven, it is easy for me to buy a loaf. That's convenient.<br />
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Then I put butter on that bread. Oh - I bought that, too. My mother taught me to churn butter, which she learned on her grandparents' dairy farm, but it's not something I normally do. If I decide I want to go back to basics, I can bake bread - from flour someone else milled - and churn butter - from cream someone else separated. At the very least, someone else grew the grain and milked the cow... It is *possible* to do all these things oneself, but... I have other things to do with my time. And the farmers who do grow the grain buy other products that people like me design, make, transport, and sell - it is all cooperative.<br />
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So, yes, I use some commercial convenience foods. I buy some of my bread, and all of my butter... and a few frozen or canned products, choosing on a case by case basis. Canned tomatoes, for instance. They're not the same as really fresh tomatoes, of course - but they're a lot better than the pink plastic objects one finds in stores in the Northeast most of the year. Our tomato season is glorious, but short - and, though I know how to can tomatoes, and I *have* canned tomatoes, I don't feel that it is the most rational use of my time, money, and space, here in my life, here in Manhattan. (Others may choose differently, for their lives. That's fine.)<br />
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I even always have a few canned soups and sauces. I can, and often do, make a lentil soup very easily, and keep quarts in the freezer - but a can of lentil soup is a good base for an emergency meal if I'm not well. The same for a jar of pasta sauce. I read labels carefully, then I usually add protein and vegetables, but it's a place to start. A can of pasta sauce, commercial pasta or polenta, and a few additions from my freezer make a good meal, without having to call for takeout.<br />
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Ah, but the additions... they are the key to cooking the way I do. These are my own Convenient Foods - foods I have cooked, and frozen to simplify later meals. I already wrote about <a href="http://inhabitedkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/05/theme-braised-chicken.html" target="_blank">doing this with chicken.</a> I will, as time goes on, write about other foods I prepare to keep on hand.<br />
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Today, I'm talking about the humble onion... I suppose I could cook without onions - but I certainly don't. The vast majority of my meals start with sauteing an onion. But that does take some time and effort - not much, but if I get home late from a job, any time matters, and when I'm cooking with a migraine any effort matters. And sometimes I have onions that are larger than I really want, cooking for just two people. I do usually chop and saute the onion fresh for each meal - it just smells so appetizing...<br />
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Sometimes, though, I do not have the energy, or much time. And I have found it remarkably useful to have sauteed chopped onion already in the freezer. I can toss it in a skillet and skip the whole first 5-10 minutes of cooking. Or, even better, I can drop it into a soup or sauce, and have the caramelized flavor of the browned onion without having to use a separate pan, or spend the extra time. To make my life easier, I simply replenish as I go - when I do start with a fresh onion, I often just go ahead and chop and saute 2 or 3 of them... As long as<i> </i>I'm using a large enough saute pan, this is not a problem. Then I pull some out, put them aside in a heat resistant bowl to cool, and later, transfer them to a zipper bag I keep in the freezer.<br />
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Since I'm talking onions - here is a basic tutorial on preparing them for those who are interested.<br />
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I find that the easiest way to peel an onion is to cut off the stem and base ends, and then cut it in half, from top to bottom. The peel usually then slips off pretty easily. If part of a layer is papery and part is still oniony, I may, if I'm being finicky, cut off the papery parts - or I may just discard the whole layer... depends a lot on time. The important part is to discard the papery parts.<br />
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Then, I lay the onion flat on its cut side. Holding it carefully (note the position of the fingers - away from the blade) I slice lengthwise from near the root end to the stem end. I leave the base attached so that it doesn't fall apart while I am cutting. The number of cuts I make depends on the size I want my chopped pieces to be - this is a fairly coarse chop, useful for most cooking. If I were mincing the onion, I would slice it more. Occasionally, I want finely sliced threads - for, say, French onion soup, or some Indian cooking. In that case, I either omit this step altogether, or just make one slice down the center of a large onion, to keep the slices manageable. </div>
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Then I slice crosswise. Again, the size of the slice depends on the size I want the chopped pieces to be. When I get close to the stem end, I flip it over onto what is now the larger cut side, and slice from there.<br />
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Notice that the top layer is slipping a bit. Be careful - I often remove the slipping layer, to be sure my finger does not slip under the knife. Notice also that I said <b>slice </b>not <b>chop.</b> For safety's sake, use a sharp knife, and cut in a sliding, slicing motion. If the primary force is down, you are more likely to have a knife slip. If the knife doesn't easily slide through the onion, sharpen it... you can easily get commercial knife sharpeners in any cookware department (even in many hardware stores.) A steel along does not sharpen a knife - it smooths the burrs on a freshly sharpened knife, but you need a stone (which is set into a sharpener, if you don't know stone and steel technique.) A dull knife is a dangerous knife - it will slip and cut you.<br />
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After chopping the onions (yes, I said to slice them - but the process is called chopping, and they are referred to as chopped onion - sliced onion implies the long threads you get without the lengthwise cuts) heat some olive oil in a saute pan or fry pan. I use a medium flame, heat the pan first, so a small amount of oil spreads out nicely, and add the onion. It takes a little attention - you can't just walk away more than a few steps, and you do need to stir periodically. Adjust the heat to be sure it doesn't burn. Depending on what you are cooking, you may stop the process when the onions are soft, or a light golden color, or you may lower the heat and cook them until they are truly browned. When I'm cooking to use later, I stop at soft and just turning golden - I can always cook them more when I use them.<br />
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Then, as I said, if I cooked more than I needed for this meal, I put some aside to cool, then package them and freeze them. I like to use zippered bags, and flatten them out - then it is easy to break off as much or as little as I want. <br />
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I really like to use just a little if I'm scrambling eggs or making an omelet - it takes longer to brown onions than to make the omelet, so I used to just leave them out, but they do add a lot of flavor... quickly, and conveniently. Or I drop some into a soup, or a can of tomatoes, to make a sauce. Or I toss some in a pan, add the already cooked chicken, add the frozen vegetables, heat up, serve over microwaved cooked ahead rice - and I have a complete meal in about 10 minutes. There are nights when I need that...<br />
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So, I do use some commercial convenience foods - though I read labels carefully. But mostly, I make my own convenient foods.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7219528941017682280.post-742752954519027512013-06-28T14:33:00.000-04:002013-06-28T14:48:55.269-04:00Scape hummusScapes!<br />
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Garlic scapes are one of the best examples of something from nothing food - and very definitely something you'll find in a farmer's market, rather than the local chain grocery store. They are shoots that grow from hardneck garlic, and farmers cut them off, so the garlic heads will be plumper. They are often just thrown out, but for years farmers ate them themselves, and now have made a market for them. </div>
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The Baroque curls of the stem are so exuberant - they're just fun to look at. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg78c1qEfJCeFSUnDEqtYTJEti6j9CRq7LZiaR4_nXYSpiyBItnTb8AmJd8392v9O6eGPHZIKblwB00RR1Hza-bRwcb3ZfPpajZSyjrhVSaJx1nIVtaWBnbKCRXQyEO0uxMAaA7GoTZvE/s1600/Scapes+(4).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg78c1qEfJCeFSUnDEqtYTJEti6j9CRq7LZiaR4_nXYSpiyBItnTb8AmJd8392v9O6eGPHZIKblwB00RR1Hza-bRwcb3ZfPpajZSyjrhVSaJx1nIVtaWBnbKCRXQyEO0uxMAaA7GoTZvE/s320/Scapes+(4).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And they have a distinct, though mild, garlic flavor. I found them several years ago, and have usually just cut them and sauteed them in vegetable mixtures. This time, though, I had a whole bag of them... which begged for a more distinctive use. </div>
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I Googled scape recipes. It seems that everyone and her grandmother is making scape pesto... I don't really use pesto much, and I wasn't sure that I wanted a pesto that was quite so garlicky, so I passed on it - but that is something to try, if you find yourself with your own bag of scapes. </div>
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I noticed a reference, in passing, to scape hummus. That's more like it - I often have hummus in the house, and frequently make my own. I had run out of tahini, though, so hadn't made any lately, as I need something to add flavor to the beans - scapes seemed perfect. </div>
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These were quite long, and I noticed that many had slightly tough stems. I decided I wanted to blanch the lower halves, both to tenderize them and to avoid the raw garlic taste, which I don't care for. I cut them roughly in half - reserved the blossom end for later use, and cut the lower end in short manageable pieces. I put them in a metal strainer, brought a pot of water to a boil, then dipped the strainer full of scapes into the water just long enough for it to return to a boil. Then I removed the scapes from the water, and ran cold water over them, to stop the cooking. (I didn't keep the blanching water - but realized later that I should have - it would have just a little flavor and would be great as a beginning for soup, or the water to cook other vegetables or meat. Just that hint of garlic...)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLtVuRow5LV0uZIMRRTyBU-cCHmOCqChJCr41WEbEMwV0fXmXt96omjz8C_Fe5QGRwm30tAh8bEP3y0aGmV0NoS9VjusKMk2B2LXPhrfrQQM4FfcIxsddYCjQRraDYYdMX-YGfRq9gzw/s1600/Scapes+(6).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLtVuRow5LV0uZIMRRTyBU-cCHmOCqChJCr41WEbEMwV0fXmXt96omjz8C_Fe5QGRwm30tAh8bEP3y0aGmV0NoS9VjusKMk2B2LXPhrfrQQM4FfcIxsddYCjQRraDYYdMX-YGfRq9gzw/s320/Scapes+(6).jpg" title="scapes, being blanced" width="320" /></a></div>
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I did have cooked chickpeas in the refrigerator. I routinely cook a pot of some sort of bean, use some right away, and keep the rest for another meal. I checked, and I had about two cups, that had not been used in the previous night's dinner. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5PgduhTe4aE6O-X9YfsWle9IWYAI6gY_X0TK1l-R0DQ6MQgQod5ll62l4QSwULXEM4vHLODLKcMVqxAsyNl_YqWIUk9A7UmjD1D1wZlIPcnkM8RfziBFcdupOdLQXOnLsYge87WWPEBY/s1600/Scape+hummus+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5PgduhTe4aE6O-X9YfsWle9IWYAI6gY_X0TK1l-R0DQ6MQgQod5ll62l4QSwULXEM4vHLODLKcMVqxAsyNl_YqWIUk9A7UmjD1D1wZlIPcnkM8RfziBFcdupOdLQXOnLsYge87WWPEBY/s320/Scape+hummus+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I have a mini food processor, as a blender attachment. I put the blanched vegetables in it, with olive oil, to help smooth it out, and chopped them coarsely This was really more than I wanted to use with the amount of chickpeas I had, so I put some in a couple of small ice cube sized containers I have, to freeze. These go into a bag in the freezer, so I can add scapes to other dishes, later in the season. (I routinely have bags of chopped herbs and aromatic vegetables in the freezer - but that will be another post...)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzLEyMnZ89mNyGHK97dztpvVu2GX5ZbsR4fB-TzUsh87a4gIUd3GaqwQXQytgmj-3eMgOa9kQkfTADXkAPtJu7UQmSr_25LekTzFazPJ6f8mX4wjPPJ7kajFeACBDSJXUxWvkNdVhiyM/s1600/Scapes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzLEyMnZ89mNyGHK97dztpvVu2GX5ZbsR4fB-TzUsh87a4gIUd3GaqwQXQytgmj-3eMgOa9kQkfTADXkAPtJu7UQmSr_25LekTzFazPJ6f8mX4wjPPJ7kajFeACBDSJXUxWvkNdVhiyM/s320/Scapes.jpg" title="chopped blanched scapes for freezing" width="320" /></a></div>
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Then I added some of the drained and rinsed chickpeas to the food processor, and ground that until smooth. They didn't all fit, so I scooped out part of that mixture, put in the rest of the chickpeas, and ground them into the mix. Once it was all smooth, I put it all in the bowl with the first batch. Then I mixed the two batches together. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7jtG0CKymoy8b6T2qSjeWKX0vtXPC72CO5BU5jKDqH39bo9ro12t9Gb6QTxp81wJluWmFQ7Yk9Dhd2kqHe-bLAldX5Qo14fbFoNMh-BLex0rve-_ooIRccX558Od0wuhZ5fefxo4iq0/s1600/Copy+of+Food+pics+-+June+057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7jtG0CKymoy8b6T2qSjeWKX0vtXPC72CO5BU5jKDqH39bo9ro12t9Gb6QTxp81wJluWmFQ7Yk9Dhd2kqHe-bLAldX5Qo14fbFoNMh-BLex0rve-_ooIRccX558Od0wuhZ5fefxo4iq0/s320/Copy+of+Food+pics+-+June+057.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I tasted it, and was a bit concerned that the garlic was too strong... but I wasn't planning to eat it right away, and hoped it would mellow. I packed it in a container with a lid, and put it away in the refrigerator. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbSJGWm2KkEMoYav7gZhBJHCGevsP3zepqZXMKsR9vVeOsPsBWUMfU9MkBjG1-y4Zz7v8tod7e7rdOOpVCbxgNXa8Sb7W9g5_RvOvT38vXViCi7QrzsilKajjGX6qIWMvZAV7qUrM9Q0Y/s1600/Scape+hummus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbSJGWm2KkEMoYav7gZhBJHCGevsP3zepqZXMKsR9vVeOsPsBWUMfU9MkBjG1-y4Zz7v8tod7e7rdOOpVCbxgNXa8Sb7W9g5_RvOvT38vXViCi7QrzsilKajjGX6qIWMvZAV7qUrM9Q0Y/s320/Scape+hummus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've spoken about my salad lunches. Along with the salad, I generally have some sort of bread, or a couple of rice cakes or other crackers. One reason I like to have hummus on hand is that I'll use it as a spread for the bread or crackers. So, the next day at lunch, I spread my nice thick, creamy, green hummus on my rice cake - and cautiously took a bite.</div>
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Oh, my... it mellowed. It was wonderful. Still quite garlicky, but not raw tasting, or overwhelming. I must confess - that picture is of my second helping - I'd spread the first thinner (as I had doubts...) but then I ate it right up and started a second before I remembered that I was blogging this and needed a picture! I gave a taste to Rich, and suddenly he was spreading it on a slice of bread. I think I know what I'm going to do with the frozen scapes - more hummus!<br />
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Now - I want people to read the process, and understand how I cook without specific recipes, just guidelines. And it is important to understand that you don't always want to follow exact measurements... What if you don't have as many scapes as I did? Or you have - and want to use - many more? What if you have less than my two cups of chickpeas? What if you like your hummus runnier, and richer, and want to add more oil? On the other hand, I want this to be easy to follow, for people used to written recipes, so I write one up at the bottom. </div>
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For this one, though, my amounts are really guesses. You saw the pictures of the curly scapes - how can anyone measure them? And I'm not going to tell you to put half away - the recipe, as such, will call for my guess about the amount that actually ended up in the final product. If I were writing a recipe book, I would now carefully go back, and start over, measuring each ingredient and taking notes as I went along. Here, though, you're going to have to go with my best guess. </div>
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Scape Hummus</div>
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1/2 c scapes that have been cut into roughly 1 inch pieces</div>
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2 T olive oil</div>
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2 c cooked, drained chickpeas</div>
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pinch salt (opt.)</div>
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Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Blanch the scapes in it, then rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking, and cool. </div>
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Place the scapes in a food processor, with the olive oil, and chop coarsely. Add the chickpeas. (If it doesn't all fit in your processor, do it in batches, and mix afterwards.) Add salt, if using. Process until smooth.</div>
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Put away, in a covered container in the refrigerator, and let the flavors blend and mellow overnight.<br />
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Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896099549545997115noreply@blogger.com0