Thursday, October 31, 2013

That's Not a Turnip!

CSA season is over.

But I had these hangers on, chillin' in my vegetable drawers, just bein' roots.
OB-Vious-Ly
celeriac (celery root), turnips, and fennel
I was going to cook them down in the friendly-to-freezing forms.  Roast the celeriac & turnips to give them a toasty bitterness - help balance the sweet they have intrinsically.  More on that in a future post.

Whoops!  Some roots I had blithely assumed were turnips, turned out to be…
A kinda cool thing, you can see that the radish and turnip have a similar radial structure inside.
If I had a white radish and a white turnip
and had to pick them apart on thin cross-section,
 I might be stumped.
But very different texture and smell.

RADISHES!  Watermelon radishes.  Now, to be fair, they were the same size as the turnip, and had the same white with a purple rash on the outside the way the turnip did - but they also had a green blush.  (Does that even make sense?)

But, hmmm change of plans.

Continue on the roasting road for the actual turnip (1 turnip is not enough for soup… unless I add it to the celeriac.  That's a thought.)

Time to pickle my radish!  Yay!

Speaking of cool patterns, look at the shapes the red vessels make in the white.
And the layers…
Makes me think of thai fruit carving.

All chopped up and ready to go!
So I went with the 3rd radish solution - quick-pickled Japanese sweet & sour style.

I'll start eating you tomorrow!
Which just goes to show, even when you think you've got it under control, the funniest things can surprise you.  Today's radish warns me not to get all know-it-ally and complacent.

But since I found kvass the other day, Imperial Kvass no less, that won't happen today.
at Star Fruit & Vegetable
(right next to Yeh Yeh's -should be famous- Vietnamese sandwiches.)

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Rice Krispie Sculpture

Local, local-local, fresh, tasty, better, blah blah blah…

Somedays, you've just gotta have fun.

Halloween is tomorrow, so I thought I'd whip up a few of these for the boy's class party.


'Cuz if you just can't have some fun.  What's the point?

Really.

Happy Halloween!


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Pumpkin Food - Lunch

Carnitas, shredded cabbage & carrots
with a base of cumin & jalapeño kraut.
(don't have that?  the Mexican spicy vegetable escabeches
hold much of the same flavors) 

I love sopes.  Love LOVE Luv! them.  But they are a pain in the patoot to make.  I mean mixing the dough isn't so bad, but the frying.  Or the parbaking, and then frying.  Or the parbaking, shaping then frying.  (Aaaaahhhhhhh!)
And they are really only at their best for about 12 minutes.  Then the edges get hard, and they loose their fluffy interior.  And they get a little dense.

Tamales on the other hand have a better shelf life.  And I do enjoy a good tamale as well.  However in Casa de Texture Issues, the mushiness of the tamale masa doesn't go over so well with some of the people I encounter in my house.
And then there's the rage of the tamale snob.  Some of the most enjoyable prose in the "you're doing it wrong" internet-cookery-category comes in the fights over making tamale dough, "the way my Mother-in-Law from (fill in small town/village in Mexico/New Mexico/Texas) does."  And how every other tamale in the whole wide world is just so inferior etc. etc. etc.  And so on.
And then there are the people who don't see why you have to put any fat in tamale dough (because it turns into something with a texture between a rubber ball and a shoe sole, That's Why!)

Well, at the risk of being hounded by the ghosts of a million indignant Abuelas and the internet presences of their strangely numerous Daughters-in-Law, I am going to mess with tradition.

Sopes are just masa and water (maybe a little salt - but probably not).  And while they are fleetingly One of The Most Delicious Things In The World to eat other things on, due to their ingredients, they are quickly on their way to becoming cornstarch hockey pucks.  The fry gets the inside fluffy by turning the water inside to steam, and trapping it within a gently crispy crust of fried corn wonderfulness.  But as the heat leaves, and the steam with it, the poor thing collapses.  It's utter simplicity, making it an ideal vessel for deeply tasty food, also means that it has no internal resources to lean on.

Tamale dough doesn't get dried out anywhere near as badly.  Sure, it is wrapped in that corn husk, and steamed, not fried, but the real trick is the fat.  Even as the water flees, the fat (usually lard) is there to keep things from heading puck-wards.  It traps water, helps the dough retain some structure, and even adds flavor.

So-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o  what if I gave my sopes a little internal fortitude?  A liquid source that has something more to hold onto, and a nice subtle flavor that already plays well with corn.  And gave them internal fat, to help with the structure problem, and continue to fix the moisture problem.  This could allow me to bake the sopes (much easier in my kitchen, especially from a resource and clean up stand point), and allow them to be frozen and reheated.  

Ta Da!  I present....

(Note: this is a HEAVILY opinionated and thus lengthily annotated recipe.  For the simpler version, skip ahead to: Baked Pumpkin Sopes - Just the Recipe)

Oven Baked Pumpkin Sopes
this recipe makes 12-16 sopes depending on what size a "golf ball" is to you.  Any you don't eat right away can be frozen, and toasted or microwaved back to life (a little too hot too touch, pliable, maybe a little crispy, and tasty).

Ingredients:
2C masa harina* (Corn Flour - NOT corn meal.  If the corn has NOT been treated with lime, it will not work.  You will have gritty polenta cakes, not sopes)
1.5 - 2C pumpkin purée (depending on the coarseness of the masa harina - finer will need less, coarser - more.)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 - 2/3 C fat (lard, oil, vegetable shortening - choose what you have or prefer to use.  I'm not going to argue about which is best.  I will say, if you go less than 1/2C fat to 2C masa harina, the texture, taste and durability of your sopes will suffer.  You may never know better, but someone will.  And the indignant Abuelas are always about.) 

Equipment:
clean hands
large mixing bowl
measuring cups & spoons
cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan (the cookie sheet of the gods - in my world)
oily/greasy paper towel (or a Silpat/silicone sheet liner)
[Stand mixer - if you are going to do a BIG BATCH, or would rather wash dishes rather than get your hands dirty, a stand mixer does this just fine!]

Prep:
Pour the masa harina, salt, baking powder into the big bowl.  Briefly stir together.  Start by adding 1.5C pumpkin purée to the dry stuff.  Squish and mix it together.  Add a little more purée - until you get that firm "play-dough" texture - or get something that looks like this:
easily holds its shape
when you break it in half it neither slumps or crumbles
and NO dry bits
Then, fold in and evenly distribute the fat of your choosing.
It should have a lighter fluffier feel and be a bit sticker once the fat is folded in.
Form into a large ball/oval.
Break in half.  
Break each of those halves in half.
Each of those 4 chunks need to be broken into 3 or 4 parts.  They should be "golf-ball" sized.
(Special APPETIZER PATROL NOTE: Instead of golf ball size, try marble size for mini sopes.  You'll get 48 - 64 depending on the size of your marbles.  Awesome appetizer bases - and bonus - gluten free, and cook ahead and reheat-able.)
(If going the greasy paper towel route - liberally grease your cookie sheets)
Each ball should be patted flat.  And then placed on the greased/Silpat-ed metal tray.  Pinch up the edges with your fingers.

(I am ignoring all Abuela related scorn.  I am doing it wrong.
I know.  I don't care.  My lunch is SO good.)
You can also press down the center with one hand,
and shore up the edges with the other.

There, like this...
done, done done, mostly done,
still to be done, still....
The most common instruction I see on the internet is "press down the center with a drinking glass." This was useless to me.  I didn't have a "drinking glass" that was sope sized, and mine all have indented bottoms anyway (Damn you Pottery Barn! or was it Crate & Barrel?)  And when I did find ramekins that were the correct size, they stuck.  And the rim was too low.  Yeah, the "press down" instruction is more trouble that it is worth.  Go with the Carpel Tunnel Prevention Therapy of actually working with dough.

Cook!
Heat up the oven to 350˚F.
Pop the sopes in for about 15 minutes.
Depending on their size they'll take 12 - 17 minutes.  You'll know you've hit the jackpot when you smell that tell-tale toasty corn smell.

several different sizes

So - what do I eat on a sope?

For me sope bliss was arrived at with my Oly Kraut cumin & jalapeño sauerkraut at the base (a stand in for the Mexican spicy vegetable escabeche), carnitas, and shredded cabbage and carrots, dressed with a little lime (photo at the top).

For the non meat eaters?  The sour/spicy/crunchy of the cumin jalapeño kraut (or vegetable escabeche), refried beans, jack cheese, and the cabbage & carrots.



And since I was doing so much sope testing, I was left with this:

After cooling -
bagged and into the FREEZER!
And then some were resurrected for a dinner of leftovers.  My son invented the chopped, pickled green bean, shredded pot roast sope - cabbage carrot slaw - of course.  But some went another route:

Left over kale & beet greens with carmelized onions & vinegar
Hey! I'm trying to take pictures here.  

Whatever else happens - the baked pumpkin sope has earned a place in my house.  Indignant DIL's of Abuealas be damned.

Baked Pumpkin Sopes - just the recipe

Wow - I CAN go on.  So, without all the commentary, here's the recipe:


Oven Baked Pumpkin Sopes
this recipe makes 12-16 sopes depending on what size a "golf ball" is to you.  Any you don't eat right away can be frozen, and toasted or microwaved back to life (a little too hot too touch, pliable, maybe a little crispy, and tasty).

Ingredients:
2C masa harina* (Corn Flour - NOT corn meal.  If the corn has NOT been treated with lime, it will not work.  You will have gritty polenta cakes, not sopes)
1.5 - 2C pumpkin purée (depending on the coarseness of the masa harina - finer will need less, coarser - more.)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 - 2/3 C fat (lard, oil, vegetable shortening - choose what you have or prefer to use.)

Equipment:
clean hands
large mixing bowl
measuring cups & spoons
cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan
oily/greasy paper towel (or a Silpat/silicone sheet liner)

Optional - Stand Mixer [if you are going to do a BIG BATCH, or would rather wash dishes rather than get your hands dirty, a stand mixer does this just fine!]

Prep:
Pour the masa harina, salt, baking powder into the big bowl.  Briefly stir together.  Start by adding 1.5C pumpkin purée to the dry stuff.  Squish and mix it together.  Add a little more purée - until you get that firm "play-dough" texture - or get something that looks like this:
easily holds its shape
when you break it in half it neither slumps or crumbles
and NO dry bits
Then, fold in and evenly distribute the fat of your choosing.
It should have a lighter fluffier feel and be a bit sticker once the fat is folded in.
Form into a large ball/oval.
Break in half.  
Break each of those halves in half.
Each of those 4 chunks need to be broken into 3 or 4 parts.  They should be "golf-ball" sized.*
(If going the greasy paper towel route - liberally grease your cookie sheets)
Each ball should be patted flat.  And then placed on the greased/Silpat-ed metal tray.  Pinch up the edges with your fingers.

You can also press down the center with one hand,
and shore up the edges with the other.

There, like this...
done, done done, mostly done,
still to be done, still....
The most common instruction I see on the internet is "press down the center with a drinking glass." This was useless.  I didn't have a "drinking glass" that was sope sized, and mine all have indented bottoms anyway.  When I did find ramekins that were the correct size, they stuck.  And the rim was too low.  Go with the Carpel Tunnel Prevention Therapy of actually working with dough.

Cook!
Heat up the oven to 350˚F.
Pop the sopes in for about 15 minutes.
Depending on their size they'll take 12 - 17 minutes.  You'll know you've hit the jackpot when you smell that tell-tale toasty corn smell.

several different sizes

So - what do I eat on a sope?

General rule - something rich flavored and protein-y (carnitas, shredded beef, refritos, scrambled eggs - maybe with sausage, chile) something sour and/or spicy (escabeche, spicy kraut, kimchi would be trendy) and something vegetable-crunchy.


Even cheese and salsa or beans and salsa would do the trick.  Or take advantage of their neutral flavor and general deliciousness, and use them as a home for abandoned leftovers.  Go nuts!

leftover greens with onions & vinegar
Lunch Accomplished
Tupperware Emptied
I win - twice!
Extra sopes are to be cooled, bagged and frozen for another day.


*(Special APPETIZER PATROL NOTE: Instead of golf ball size, try marble size for mini sopes.  You'll get 48 - 64 depending on the size of your marbles.  Awesome appetizer bases - and bonus - gluten free, and cook ahead and reheat-able.)

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Pumpkin Food - Breakfast

Pumpkin Rice Pudding
with Almond Butter

How do you eat a pumpkin?  I mean Peter Peter (Pumpkin Eater) apparently did it, but there are no details.  But us mere mortals, how does it go down?






Step 0.  Do NOT try to eat the Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins.  They are not very good.  They make great art, and the seeds are dang tasty, but those big pumpkins are big, watery, stringy and pretty tasteless.






Step 1.  Get some of those cute little sugar/pie pumpkins.



Step 1.5  Roll up your sleeves and get ready for some work.  Getting a pumpkin ready for consumption is no joke, and not fast.  So if you are going to do it, do at least 2, and 4 is not insane.  After all, the cooking takes no longer, and if you are going to drag out your food processor/food mill and get it all dirty, go BIG.  The purée freezes for 2 months and beyond.  (And I'm gonna have lunch and dinner too.  So be prepared with plenty of purée.)

Step 2.  Cut your pumpkins in half, and scoop out the seeds.  If you are having trouble cutting into your pumpkin, check out "This squash is too hard," and return.

Step 3.  Preheat the oven to 375˚F.  Get a pan big enough for all the pumpkin halves to sit in (or enough pans - you get it) face up.

stem on/stem off
it matters not - do what's easiest
Bake until the flesh is easily pierced with a fork, and the skin has browned and pulls away easily.  About 30 - 50 min.  It depends on the thickness and denseness of your particular squash.

When the pumpkin is cooked enough the skin comes away easily.

Step 4. Purée the pumpkin flesh.  Toss your cooked pumpkin in chunks into a food mill or food processor.  Squish it through the middle-sized disk of your food mill (if you have one, you know what I mean - if not, don't worry), or run it through your food processor, adding a little water, broth, milk or other liquid to help the purée form (liquid choice depends on the destination - water is a catch all.  I like milk, or almond milk when cooking for dairy free friends.)

Finally!  Pumpkin purée.
After all of that, it had better be good.
(Also, I can see the attraction of The Can.)

So finally, you have the puree, how do you make breakfast?

The recipe at last:

Pumpkin Breakfast Rice Pudding with Almond Butter
Single serving (& 4 serving) amounts

Ingredients:
3/4C liquid (3C) - I like milk the best
1/4C pumpkin purée (1C)
1/4 tsp salt (1tsp)
up to 1Tbs sugar/honey/maple syrup etc. (1/4 C) - to taste
2 Tbs cream of rice* (1/2C)
1-2 Tbs almond butter (1/4 - 1/2 C) - to taste (or other nut butter - cashew would be good to I bet)
(optional - a shake or two of ginger and/or cinnamon and/or nutmeg - to your taste)

Equipment:
sauce pan
stirring spoon or spatula
measuring cups and spoons

Prep:
Make the pumpkin purée (see above).  Ahead.  It can be done right before, or WAY ahead.  (Rats!  I don't have any!  I won't tell, use the canned stuff.)
Get all the other ingredients together, and ready to go.

Cook!
Combine the liquid, pumpkin purée, salt and HALF of you chosen sweetener in the pan.  (Add in any optional spices.)  Stir it all together over medium high heat.  Heat to a scald (when tiny bubbles appear around the edge).  Stir in the cream of rice into the liquid.
Keep an eye on the mixture, stirring occasionally.  If it starts to boil and splat, turn down the heat.
Continue cooking until the rice has lost its gritty texture, and the mixture has the thickness of a pourable milkshake.  (It will thicken as it cools.)

Pour into a bowl, top with almond butter, and a little extra sweetener if you feel like it needs it.

(If you made extra, divide in to ~3/4 servings and refrigerate or freeze the extra servings for the next day and the next and...
Like the puree, you can make lots and freeze some for later.  Rice starch does not get gluey in the freeze/thaw transition.  So making 8 or even 16 portions at a time is not nuts.)

*Cream of Rice.  You can get it in the hot cereal aisle right next to the Cream of Wheat.  OR!  If you are adventurous, you can go check out an Indian market and get your hands on "Idli Rava" which is exactly the same thing.  Choose from course grind (for a texture more like polenta) or fine grind (for a more pudding-like texture)

Monday, October 21, 2013

This squash is too hard!








I'm trying to be a good local eater.  Or at least a seasonal one, but there's the squash problem.  The hard squash problem.  The too hard to cut open without hurting myself problem.

Which knife?

If you fear cutting your squash may finish with a trip to the ER, rather than a tasty dish, please follow these steps:

1.  Take the paring knife (the small one) and give the squash a few stabs - all the way into the center if you can manage.

2.  Pop the WHOLE THING into the oven at 350˚F (you can snap off the stem if you want).

3. Bake for about 20 - 30 minutes, or until the poked slits start to gap, and the bottom slumps or flattens just a bit.



4.  The squash should slice open much more easily.


Scoop the seeds out, and then bake how you normally would.