Salsa!

Momma ripped out a magazine insert with three different salsa recipes. We needed something to take to a party, so we riffed off two of the recipes to make our own.

1 c diced pineapple
1/2 c finely diced red onion
1/2 c diced cucumber
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T chopped cilantro
2 T grated ginger
squeeze of lemon
drizzle of honey
salt and pepper to taste
Mix together and let rest 1 hour in the fridge.

For this salsa, the heat comes from the ginger, aided by the garlic and onion, and the acidity of the pineapple, rather than the traditional chilies.
So for an onion and garlic free version for myself, I upped the ginger and cilantro and black pepper. Tastes wonderful with blue corn chips, and would go nicely over baked chicken breasts or thighs. (Put lemon slices on the chicken pieces before roasting them, and then serve them over spinach with the salsa. Would be so good.)

1 c diced pineapple
1/3 c diced cucumber
1/4- 1/3 c chopped cilantro
4 T grated ginger (or more!)
Lemon juice
Honey
salt and LOTS of black and white pepper

I'm also reading Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie. It's an excellent cookbook, has a huge section of delicious-looking salads (if we only had the greens!), pastas, then goes through things to do with different meats (lots of seafood), a section on veggies, and some desserts. I wish the veggies took up the whole book. We don't really eat meat in our house, we eat pasta only rarely since Mum can't eat it anymore, so I'm not feeling entirely inspired. But the things he does with carrots! We're running out of carrots in our fridge!

And in other news, there's a new food and cooking channel on TV, the Cooking Channel. They have Julia Child on, Monday through Friday at 1pm Central time! And I got to watch "the Galloping Gourmet" for the first time yesterday. He's a scream.

in other news

We figured out that I have sensitivities to garlic and onions (in the same plant family), as well as dairy. Did you know that it was even possible to have trouble with garlic and onions? There's pretty much nothing on the web about it, except for a couple forum discussions. It probably hasn't gotten the popularity of gluten-free and dairy-free diets. So the last several months have been a bit challenging as I feel as if I'm relearning how to cook.

Basically my favorite way to cook veggies: sauteed with olive oil or butter, salt and lots of pepper, one or two additional herbs or spices. In this case, Mexican squash (not much different than zucchini) with paprika, toasted walnuts and rice. It's a very simple meal. I would usually add an egg, but the egg went in with the rice--I beat the egg, added rice, salt, pepper, oregano, and then scooped and dropped in a pan to make rice cakes.

Kale for the first time! Sauteed with salt and pepper, sprinkled with almonds, it was so good.

Mark Bittman's pad thai--except it was "ghetto" because we don't have tamarin paste, so I added lemon juice. And I used mung bean noodles instead of rice noodles. It was good, but it would probably be better if I followed the recipe more closely and if we had had cilantro on hand. I left out the garlic and scallions. With omitting garlic all the time (garlic is in the flavor base for pretty much everything!), I'm making an effort to draw more from other herbs and spices. We made the investment and went in on a bottle of white truffle oil, but I'm trying to save that for sauces and things, and for other things build complexity with other ingredients. Asian and Indian-inspired foods have been easier to modify and get that complexity than with Italian or French-based recipes.

Sweet potato stir-fry, another Mark Bittman recipe. I love sweet potatoes. Once again, the garlic was left out. Cayenne, lots of black pepper, cumin went into the seasoning, and once cooked, the stir-fry had lemon juice squeezed over top. This was Shanna's plate, so she got chopped scallions too. Peanuts, rice, baked mexican squash, fried egg finished it off---and the weather was nice enough to eat outside!

The leftover stir-fry got mixed with egg and pan-fried into patties. Yummy!

The same egg-and-pattie treatment with leftover wild rice pelof, zucchini and mushrooms.

Shanna made this pureed roasted pepper soup for me. So far pureeing has worked the best for making soups without onions and garlic. Otherwise the broth just doesn't seem very interesting and the veggies float around forlornly without the flavors locking together.

Roasted chick peas, baked sweet potato and rice. The chick peas were so much fun to bake and to eat!

Eating out of the house is tricky because onions and garlic are in everything; it's difficult to enjoy anything containing them when you know you're going to feel awful afterwards. But over spring break, the three of us went to Seattle. We ate at favorite vegetarian-vegan restaurant of Shanna's family--the food was all so fresh and simple that it was easy to get the garlic and onions left out. The food was very good: the bell peppers were stupendous, perfectly cooked, with good flavor. And the plating was well done.

And this one too . . .

I found the website for Saveur magazine. Typing in "apples" brought up so many wonderful things!
From http://ourchocolateshavings.blogspot.com/2009/09/apple-pudding.html:

Apple Pudding
Serves 4

2 big apples (I used Cortland), peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
2 x 1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup of self-rising flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
50 grams of room temperature butter
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a small bowl, combine the apple pieces, lemon juice and zest, cinnamon and brown sugar. Set aside.

In a another bowl, using an electrical mixer, beat the butter and sugar (about 2 minutes). Add the the egg and vanilla extract until just combined. Slowly add in the flour until just combined. Divide the apple mixture into 4 individual ramekins and spoon over the flour mixture. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy!

Remind me to make this

Buttery Apple Cake-Tart

This recipe started life as Ligita's Quick Apple Cake, which is a classic recipe in itself. As things tend to do in my kitchen, however, this evolved, and now it's a close relative of Ligita's cake, but definitely its own dessert. For one, I bake it in a shallow tart pan, which allows for maximum crustiness and a somewhat lighter texture. I've also taken out the cinnamon, which I felt was masking the delicate flavor of the browned butter, and replaced it with a vanilla bean, since vanilla bean sauteed in brown butter is one of the best things ever, trust me. The result is something really unique, like I said, a cross between a cake and a tart, crisp and soft, buttery, fragrant and fruity. And trust me again, you will want some whipped cream or ice cream alongside.
Source: adapted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax
Yield: one thin, 11-inch cake; serves 8

3 large tart apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup (150g) plus 3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks/180g) unsalted butter
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise (i.e. cut a bean in half crosswise, then split the half lengthwise)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
Vanilla-flavored whipped cream or ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Generously butter an 11-inch (28cm) nonreactive tart pan or other similarly-sized glass or ceramic baking dish. Toss the apples in a bowl with the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Spread the apples evenly in the prepared pan.

Combine the butter and vanilla bean in a small saucepan (not nonstick - you need to be able to see the butter change color). Cook the butter over medium until the milk solids are light brown and the whole thing smells deeply nutty, about 7-10 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning.

Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove the vanilla bean (add it to your extract!) and pour the browned butter into a medium-sized bowl, scraping the black vanilla seeds and browned butter solids in too. Stir the 3/4 cup (150g) sugar into the butter. Gently stir in the eggs; stir in the flour and salt just until blended. Spoon the batter evenly over the apples and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake until lightly golden and crusty, 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into wedges and serve from the pan warm, with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Update: so I made this and it was pretty good but just way too sweet. Next time I won't toss the apples with sugar and I'll cut the sugar in the custard to about 1/2 cup.

Oh, how I love brussel sprouts! They are my solace in the depths of paper writing all the term.
Or whatever.

Anyway, Lauryl roasted brussel sprouts in cast iron with balsamic vinegar and generous black pepper. I'm in love.

The other veggie I fell in love with this week was rutabaga with butter and rosemary and white pepper.

Announcement

If you want to marry me, you must give me a Theo Chocolate Coconut Curry Milk Chocolate bar. Other Theo Chocolates are welcome. www.theochocolate.com
And a nice block of parmesan.
And a bouquet of basil.

That's all for now.

Thank you.

The Bread Saga

Well, as you saw, we had quite an exciting time. I made bread out of the Tassajara bread book for declamations. (Yay for Senioritis. The assignment was to make some sort of food representative of our college experience. Mr.Schwandt gets hungry at 2:30 and my class is It makes four loaves. This is our biggest bowl. It's amazing what yeast can do. I forgot how humongous this thing could get.

The sponge: tohu va bohu

After the first rising.

Braided

And baked.

Unbaked loaves #3 and #4.

Warm and sliced. Lauryl absolutely adores butter. Like the king in the A.A. Milne poem: "But I do like a little bit of butter for my royal slice of bread!" Except Lauryl doesn't do just a little bit.

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