Food for a Dark and Stormy Night...

We find ourselves a bit tight financially this weekend, what with various expenses we've had recently and the holidays, so its been a time for ingenuity. We're also getting ready for some major changes in the way we eat...we'd like to be healthier. Knowing what stores we have in the house...a definite surplus of beans, peas and lentils, flour and pasta, rice and couscous, potatoes from our garden, lots of onions, boxes of frozen spinach, dried fruit, nuts, canned tomatoes and corn...guided my choices. My instinct was Middle-Eastern. I looked at three or four books and ended up with Ghillie Başan's The Middle Eastern Kitchen and a warming Iranian bean soup, along with a loaf of my wife and son's delightful homemade bread. I made a few adjustments for what we had in the house...no lamb, as in the original recipe, chicken stock instead of water, and dried figs standing in for dried prunes...

ÂB GHOOSHTE FASL

1/2 cup dried, skinned fava beans (the small Egyptian variety is ideal)
1/2 cup dried white beans (navy, great northern or limas)
1/2 cup dried black-eyed peas (or chickpeas)
1/2 cup yellow split peas
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
8 cups stock or water (I used chicken, but beef or lamb would work)
2/3 cup chopped, dried fruit (I used Mission figs, but prunes, apricots, dates, raisins, peaches or apples would work)
1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
4 potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons dried parsley (or a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley)
1 teaspoon dried Saigon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
Sea salt, to taste

• Pour 6 cups boiling water over the fava beans and white beans. Soak for 2 hours.
• Add the black-eyed peas to the beans and continue to soak for 2 more hours.
• Place the soaked beans and peas, lentils, chopped onion, and stock in a large stockpot. Bring to the boil over high heat, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1 hour.
• Add the dried fruit, tomatoes, potatoes, dried parsley (if using), cinnamon, black pepper, coriander and turmeric to the pot. Raise heat to medium-high and return to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 more hour.
• Taste for seasoning and add salt as required. If using fresh parsley, add at this time. Serve.

It would be traditional to add some cubed lamb or beef. One could add a box of frozen spinach. Rice, barley or pasta would work well. Traditional accompaniments are a salad plate of fresh herbs, chopped radishes, and pickles. If I'd had whole wheat flour (which I hadn't realized we were out of...lol), I would have prepared some hushva naan, the pebbled, yeasted flat bread of the Iranians, but the homemade bread worked quite well. Next time. The soup was delightfully warm and filling, and Gina loved it. She considers it one of her favorite soups, which warmed me a little more.

Last Night...

...it was a dark and stormy night. Freezing rain. Yuck. But we knew this was coming, so I planned for something warm and filling and comforting. In this instance...my beef stew. Inspired, originally, by the classic Flemish beef stew. I cook browned, cubed beef and almost an equal weight of sliced onions all day in a crockpot with a couple bottles of porter (instead of a Belgian-style beer), beef consomme, a little bit of cider vinegar and sugar, and seasonings (bay leaves, black pepper, thyme, parsley and juniper). After hours of simmering in the crockpot, the beef is falling apart tender, and the onions have nearly melted into the delightful stewing liquid, which turns a dark brown color and starts thickening. It is wonderful, rich and savor. We served it atop egg noodles, as I didn't feel like making mashed potatoes, the other carb of choice for this dish. I think spaetzle would work well, too.

I wanted to make Gina a dessert, too, but I wanted it to be easy. I did some looking around online, and decided to modify the Nestles(TM) golden brownies recipe. The first thing I did was drop the chocolate chips from the recipe. Chocolate is my craving, not hers. Then, I tripled the vanilla extract, because she loves vanilla. It is her preferred ice cream flavor to this day. I decided a little bit of ground mace would be a good thing, too. I went to the kitchen and started gathering ingredients. !!*#@&%@!! We didn't have nearly enough brown sugar for the brownies. Ahhh! Gina had gotten a Taste of Home magazine in the mail yesterday. In it, a reader had written in with a white sugar-molasses mix as a brown sugar substitute! Serendipity. I surged ahead and whipped up a batch. They finished baking a few minutes before dinner was ready...just in time for us to have a warm brownie before dinner, actually. Lol. Very tasty. The molasses-vanilla-mace trio end up creating a flavor somewhat reminiscent of butterscotch and toffee and molasses cookies all at the same time. They are even better today, a bit chewy and rich, but not super sweet. They cooked up a bit darker than golden brownies. I think the gal in the magazine went a little heavier handed with molasses than the sugar companies actually do, but it all worked out: Gina has a new all-time favorite brownie.

Tonight. Well, tonight is going to be my creamy macaroni and cheese, and a pile of fresh steamed broccoli...

Leftovers? Turkey Salad Sandwiches a la Grecque...

I took the last of the leftover turkey breast tonight and shredded/chopped it, along with celery, yellow onion, pickled peppers, feta cheese and garlic. For the dressing, I mixed mayo with some sour cream, tahini and a Greek vinaigrette. We had them on onion rolls, with french fries on the side. They were very tasty. We'll likely have them again. Chicken or tuna would work, too.

Well, We Finally Did It...

...yes, that's right...we finally got around to making our Thanksgiving Dinner. Better late than never...lol. I had worked on Turkey Day, so we hadn't wanted to cook it then. We were going to cook last weekend, but didn't feel up to it. We decided to go with a pretty simple meal, since there are only three of us: a whole turkey breast coated with a simple rub and cooked on the rotisserie, cornbread stuffing and gravy, dinner rolls, garlicky green beans (always a fav), an apple-and-cranberry chutney I got from the local newspaper, some cranberry jelly (for Gina) and black olives (all mine...lol). It was yummy and we are pleasantly full (or stuffed, as the case may be). The rub for the turkey was simple and very good -

Turkey Day Rub

2 tablespoons mild California chile powder

(or sweet paprika)

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon seasoned salt (such as Lawry's)

1 tablespoon rubbed sage

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Use as desired. Store jar of rub in a cool, dry place. Makes a little over half a cup. Good for a few months.

Kebabs!...

I made some chicken kebabs, this evening, in the rotisserie (too chilly to want to use the bbq). I had seen a recipe in an Indian cookbook for a very simple chicken kebab with honey, lemon, garlic, ginger, chile and a bit of soy sauce. Being me...by the time I went in the kitchen to cut up and marinate some chicken, it began to morph. We ended up with more of a Central Asian kebab that came out tender and moist, sweet and spicy. There's still a little tweaking needed, and I'd love to cook them over hardwood charcoal, but here's the basic idea right now...

SWEET-HOT SILK ROAD CHICKEN KEBABS

4 boneless, skinless half-breasts of chicken, cut into about 8 cubes each

1-1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root

1-1/2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic

1 tablespoon crushed Sichuan chile, or to taste

1 tablespoon Silk Road spice mix (my adaptation of the Xinjiang spice mix bouncing around the Internet)

2 tablespoons peanut, sesame and/or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce or mushroom soy sauce

2 tablespoons black rice vinegar (Gold Plum Brand Chinkiang is a good choice)

1 cup honey or agave syrup

Mix together the ginger, garlic, Sichuan chile, Silk Road spice mix, oil, soy sauce and vinegar. Put the chicken in a bowl, dump the marinade over and toss well. Set aside in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours, or as long as overnight.

When ready to cook, thread the chicken pieces onto skewers...not to close together, leave space between the pieces...and cook either on the grill or in the rotisserie for the recommended time.

Approximately 10 minutes before finishing, begin brushing the chicken pieces with the honey, working to build up a good glaze on the chicken.

Let sit a couple of minutes before serving. We served 'em with rice and coleslaw.

Dinner Last Night...

Gina made chicken and dumplings last night, of which I am a big fan. There's a healthy dose of white wine and herbs in her broth and it is so flavorful, plenty of chicken and veggies (onions, celery, carrots), and big, substantial dumplings...which are my favorite. I make chicken and dumplings sometimes, and make very light dumplings...which are what she prefers...lol. Funny how that works.

A Week for Carnivores...

We don't normally eat tons of meat, but we started this week off with Gina cooking a pot roast with oven-roasted root vegetables, gravy and homemade bread, all of which was yummy. I had this 8-lb. pork roast in the fridge...it was unthawed and needed to be used...so I oven-roasted it Tuesday, coated with an Italian mix of seasonings - lots of garlic, herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram), black pepper, lemon zest, coriander and fennel, mixed with extra-virgin olive oil - 'til it formed this delightfully savory crust. Finally, on Wednesday, we had a dear friend over and I made a pile of chicken-fried steaks, mashed potatoes, and garlicky green beans, which we topped with Monday's leftover gravy. Yesterday morning, breakfast was machaca - scrambled eggs, shredded beef, onions and peppers, with cheese and salsa, all rolled up in flour tortillas...

Its Good Stew Weather...

I've eaten a few bowls of our Vegetable Stew latey. I originally came up with the recipe. This last batch was made by my wife, Gina. Now maybe it was just that I didn't have to cook it, but I liked hers better than my own...it seemed subtly different. The weather has been gray and rainy of late. Today, the rain has been steady, and harder than the usual PNW drizzle. A good time for a bowl of something warm and filling. I'm going to make my own interpretation of Hopkins County Chicken Stew: a big pot of chicken, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and corn, seasoned with chili powder. So that the chicken meat doesn't dry it from all that simmering, I'm going to coat it with chili powder and cook it in the rotisserie, chop it, then add it at the least moment. I'll just use some good strong chicken stock to encourage the chickeny flavor. The potatoes are from the garden. The tomatoes are crushed, and some of the corn is in the form of creamed corn. Its supposed to be a perennial hit in East Texas. We'll top it with grated sharp cheddar cheese. Gina and our son have been making a lot of homemade bread lately. Tonight I'll make skillet cornbread. We like the first recipe in Crescent Dragonwagon's The Cornbread Gospels. Iced tea is a must. I really should throw together something in the way of a dessert, too. Hmmm...maybe some peach cobbler. Yeah...

French Toast from Heaven...

Gina, and our son, Matt, have been using the bread machine these last few days, making several loaves of some delightful white bread (heavy with a nice, fine crumb, ever so slightly sweet), and one of cinnamon raisin bread. Both of us being tired, I suggested French toast, made with the homemade bread, for dinner. I sliced it about 3/4 of an inch thick and dipped it in a mix of eggs, milk, vanilla extract, freshly ground nutmeg and Saigon cinnamon, then fried them in oil on our electric skillet. Butter and a little syrup to finish. OMG good! Better even than the English muffin bread we normally prefer for French toast.

Tomorrow, I'm going to make what I'm calling "West Indies Bean and Pumpkin Soup". It'll be a thick, filling soup of white beans, cubed pumpkin (from our own garden), and spinach flavored with a sofrito of onions, carrot, celery, bell pepper, garlic, ginger root, and jalapeno, as well as some allspice, cumin, black pepper and thyme - typical Caribbean seasonings. Some coconut milk, scallions and flat-leaf parsley will finish things off.

Yum...

I made teriyaki chicken bowls tonight for dinner. I made a simple (and more authentic) sauce from mirin and sake (had to substitute Chinese shaoxing wine for the sake), soy sauce and sugar, thickened with a bit of cornstarch, while I coated a couple of big chicken breasts with a basic rub of black pepper(lots!), salt, paprika, onion and garlic powders, and just a bit of smoked paprika and cooked them in the rotisserie. I ate mine with a bunch of pickled ginger, for some zing. Gina loved it...thought it was the best she'd had. It was mighty tasty, though I'm fonder of the spicy chicken available at some of the teriyaki places in the PNW. I chopped up the chicken after it rested for a few minutes, put it on top of some sticky short-grained rice, and poured some sauce over the top...

I've Been Bad...

...at least as a blogger. I just burned out for awhile, on the issue of writing here. Been busy, had plenty of stressful things going on at times. I let the cooking contests slide to the wayside, too.

Things are calming down enough that I'm looking at the contests again. We are laying down plans for entries in the Build a Better Burger Contest, and the Scharffenberger Chocolate contest. There will be more besides those.

I've been doing a lot of cooking, at times, but just haven't taken the time to jot things down. Night before last we had breakfast for dinner, and we used some of our homegrown Kennebec potatoes to make hashbrowns, along with grated onions, seasoned salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. I pan-fry them until they build up a nice brown crust on both sides. The Kennebecs were great, and so tender in the middle. Gina likes hers with a bunch of melted sharp cheddar on 'em, while I like mine with chile ketchup (ketchup + Sriracha hot sauce...lol).

I've taken an interest in the food of Central Asia, especially Uzbek and Uighur-influenced food. For lunch, I made some noodles...somewhere between lagman and chow mein. I stir-fried some chicken tossed with a Central Asian-influenced spice mix (black cumin, black and Sichuan peppercorns, crushed Sichuan chilies, powdered garlic and ginger, and a couple other things), and some fresh aromatics (garlic, ginger and scallions), lots of onions, green beans, sweet red peppers and carrots. The sauce was flavored with dark soy sauce, rice wine and some smoky black rice vinegar. I used the fresh, thick, yellow Chinese wheat noodles, boiled briefly and added to the chicken and veggies at the last minute. Good stuff. Ideally, there should have been little bowls of fresh cilantro and scallions, chilies, vinegar, fried garlic and chopped peanuts for the diners to add to the noodles, but I just made it as a quick lunch dish. Still quite tasty. Different from regular Chinese food, because of the spicing.

Last night was Gina's request: my Swedish-style meatballs with gravy, garlicky mashed potatoes (more of the fresh Kennebecs from the garden), and quick-pickled sliced cucumbers (again, from our garden) flavored with dill. These meatballs are one of her favorites. I like fixing her things she enjoys so much. And between yesterday's dinner and lunch, I have some pretty good eating here at work today...lol.

Nova Scotia and Iberia...

I've been very bad about blogging for months now. Haven't tried competing in any contests, either. I've been occupied with other things. Trying to get back to writing now.

I have been cooking. We had doughnuts this afternoon, homemade, for the first time in ages. They were a simple, but sublime, creation. They are what plain cake doughnuts aspire to be, but do not normally achieve. Gina and I found the recipe, entitled "Sour Cream Doughnuts", in a spiral-bound cookbook we found at a thrift store, entitled "Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens". They are a basic doughnut, made of eggs, buttermilk and sour cream, sugar, flour, with a hint of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. After the dough idled in the fridge for awhile I rolled it out thin, cut it in modest rectangles, and tossed the doughnuts into some hot oil. They fried up into airy pillows, tender, delicately spiced, only a little sweet...delightful. A little powdered sugar on top is acceptable. More might be gilding the lily. Gina declared them the best she's ever eaten. I might still hold out for the buttermilk doughnuts I used to pick up on the way to work in San Antonio, at the H.E.B. bakery counter, still warm...mmmmmmmm.

Dinner was a dish inspired by the Andalusia Garbanzos con Chorizo in Clifford A. Wright's "A Mediterranean Feast". In this case, we cooked up a thick, stick-to-your-ribs stew of nutty chickpeas, ample quantities of Portuguese linguica sausage, onions, green bell peppers, tomatoes, seasoned with garlic, paprika, saffron, black pepper and a little white wine, finished with a handful of flat-leaf parsley fresh from the garden. A hunk of sourdough bread to mop up the sauce was all it needed. We stuck to the style of his dish...just fancified it a touch with the garlic, wine and parsley...and substituted the sausage we had on hand. Very, very nice, and my wife and son blessed off on it, to my son's initial surprise. I'm not easy on his autistic desire for the 'same-o, same-o' all the time...lol.