Picking the perfect avocado

Dang it!

First, stay away from anything that feels soft as a baseball.
Second, say no to things that feel like they are already guacamole in an avocado skin.

Great - so that's staying away from the worst, but you haven't answered the question.
 How do you pick out the perfect avocado?

Find the ones that have a little give.  And then find the one that does this:

When the little button comes off, that's the timer that tells you READY!

So how to cut it up nicely?


Cut around the seed, twist it in half.  Pop the knife into the seed and twist it out.
(AaaaaahhHHHHhhhh!  How do I get the knife of the seed.  DON'T PULL!!!!



Over the dull side of the knife, push DOWN on the seed with your thumb and forefinger.  Sort of pinch it off.  So safe I let my boy do it!)


Gently cut slices or cubes.

And peel off the shell.

Ta-Da!

A Better Potato Salad - Sauerkraut Style

Sauerkraut Potato Salad

The first potatoes of the season arrived in my CSA, and they looked so GOOD!  And it was hot.  And a cold potato dish sounded like a great idea.  But not so, what's the word I want, Nasty.  And while futzing around with my veggies, trying to tetris them all into the fridge, I started (suffered from?) an imaginary conversation with my potatoes.

Me:  Hey!  Potato salad. Yeah, you there. The one in the bright yellow mayonnaise. Come here. Talk to me. What's up?  Potatoes have the ability to be fluffy and creamy, addictive when fried and salted, yet this... This is a disgrace. 

Potato: Look. This is a mistake. We're suffering from a hangover from the 1940's. 

Me: Wow. That must have been one heck of a bash. 

P: Well, uh, see there were some big changes in the 40's.  There was a massive shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial one, and, well "salad" turned out to be a casualty. 

It went from a delightful cold dish, often handy because you could make it ahead, to any old mixture of stuff glued together with mayonnaise. 

Me: Huh?

P: Well, look at tuna salad, chicken salad, Waldorf salad, pasta salad, egg salad, (cough ukh), ham salad...

Me: I believe I'm starting to get the picture.  It's not the material, it's the easily available mayo.

P: Hellman's has much to answer for. 

Me: Kraft?

P: I don't want to talk about it. 

Me:  So potatoes like to be dressed...

P:  But not drowned. We like some decoration, but no potato wants to feel like it's doing the mud-spa thing, where we have to be unearthed. 

Me: So no more mayo?

P: Mayo isn't even the problem. It's more like people use mayo like they bought it on sale.  I wish they'd use it like they had to hand whip it from eggs they gathered themselves. OK, thats a little precious of me. Sparingly. That's what I really want. Potatoes dig the creamy-salty-savory, we just ask to be heard, not covered up, glorping for a little air. 

Me: How do you feel about sour?

P: Love the sour. Being a Chip in a duo with Fried fish is especially awesome, 'cuz sometimes we get to dip in a particularly skillful Tartar Sauce, maybe get splash with a little malt vinegar. 

Me: Well, I have this jar of sauerkraut. 

P: what kind?  Vinegar?

Me: Nothin' doing. Well drained, small batch, fermented crunchy stuff. A local kid made good!

P:  You do know sauerkraut and I had kind of a history.  

Me:  Let's see if I can do the tradition justice. 

Sauerkraut Potato Salad 

with pan fried chicken apple sausage slices. 

This made a hearty dinner for 2, multiply for more diners. 

Ingredients:

4 fist sized potatoes (or equivalent.)

handful of dill
1/2 C plain yogurt (thicker is better)
1/4 of a purple onion
1/2 C sauerkraut
salt and pepper to taste
2 chicken apple sausages

Equipment:
knife
butting board
large pot
salad bowl
slotted spoon (colander optional)
scrubby brush
measuring cups
sauté pan
spatula (or tongs)

Prep:
Put the pot on to boil
Scrub the potatoes and cut them into large bite-size pieces. About 12ths or so.
When the pot comes to a boil, add a large pinch of salt and the potatoes.  Set the timer for 10 minutes (yes, that'll be too soon, but will give you a feel for how much longer.)

While the potatoes are boiling, finely chop the dill, and the onion into small pieces.  Place them into the salad bowl and stir these into the sauerkraut.  Add the yogurt a spoonful at a time until you like the way it all blends together. Add salt until all the flavors pop out. (But not enough to make it taste salty.)
Slice the sausages into 4 or 5 diagonal pieces.

Cook!
That potato timer goes off. Pull out a piece and check it. If it is close, check again in 2 min.  Still rock hard, try again in 5. 

When your potatoes are cooked but still firm (not crunchy, but not mushy), get them out of the water.
Add the hot potatoes to the dressing.
Let them soak while you pan fry the sausages until they have crispy edges.

Serve the sausages with the sauerkraut potato salad.

Variations:
Make this salad ahead (up to overnight) to be served with anything barbecue, especially if it has a sweet tang to it.

Any sausage works.  I'd just urge you to choose something sweetish to play up against the sour in the salad. There's a lamb & plum sausage once that totally fit the bill.

If you can get your hands on a curry sauerkraut, try this with a grilled tofu and a teriyaki type sauce.

Super Simple Waffles

Some things are best when you don't over-think.

Waffles are definitely that.  There are fancier recipes, but none faster - and likely to make you happy every time.

Basic Waffles
Use this amount for two adults and 1 or 2 small kids.  For bigger kids, or more people, double it.

Ingredients:

1 C flour
1.5 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 Tbs butter
1 C milk

Equipment:

waffle iron
medium bowl
cereal sized bowl
fork
measuring cups and spoons
1/4 cup measure
small bowl for melting butter
vegetable oil and brush - or spray to oil the waffle iron

Prep:

Melt the butter in the microwave in a very small microwave safe bowl.  Set aside to cool to the touch, but not harden.
Measure out all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) into the medium bowl.  Use the fork to quickly stir them together.

Cook:

Turn on the waffle iron to medium.  Oil the plates.
While the waffle iron is heating, break the egg into the cereal bowl, and beat with the fork.  Add about half the milk and stir them together.  Add the butter, stir that in too.  Dump these liquids into the dry ingredients, stir about 5 times with the fork.  Add some or all of the rest of the milk to make a pourable and slightly lumpy batter (about 10 more stirs - no more!).

Use the 1/4 cup measure to pour batter into the center of the heated, oiled waffle iron.
Check the result of the first one when your indicator says "Done!"
Use a little more or less batter, and possibly adjust the temperature setting to get what you want.

Variations:

Blueberry Waffles - Add the batter as usual, but just before closing the lid, scatter a handful or two of berries over the batter.  Fresh or frozen are fine.  Raspberries and Blackberries work too.  Very large berries benefit from being cut in half.

Ham Waffles - Super "breakfast for dinner" fodder.  Cut about 1 C of cubes from thickly sliced ham.  (Ask for 2-3 1/4" thick pieces at the deli counter).  Sprinkle them in the same way blueberries are sprinkled in.  Bacon is also acceptable.

Sauerkraut Salad Dressing

Summer Time is Salad Time!

I've been getting some of the most delicious sauerkraut in my CSA boxes, and enjoying it with sausage and the spicy "kim chi"type with Korean short ribs.  But the sour, crunchy, tingly stuff deserves more exposure, and we got these delicious sweet Nantes carrots in the CSA box.

fat, stubby and super sweet!

They are so sweet and fresh that I didn't want to waste any tender crunchiness by using my carrot peeler.

So I gave then a good scrub with the trusty brush I go just for the purpose:

 And then using my knife to just scrape off the few hairy roots that were clinging on, and maybe a bit of the tougher surface skin:

You can see little bits of the scraped skin on the knife and cutting board.

So I needed to figure out a way to bring together the carrot and the tasty, tasty, crunchy, lip-smacky sauerkraut.  Now pickled carrots are a good thing, so I figured the two should go together, but the sweet of the carrots needed a little more salty to go with the sauerkraut, and maybe a little creamy to smooth out the flavor.  Which is how I came up with this fermentation three-fer:

Sauerkraut Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

Oly-Kraut Sauerkraut (start with one of the "plain" flavors, rather than a "spicy" one.)

yogurt

soy sauce

Equipment:

knife

cutting board

small bowl 

spoon

Prep:

Take a couple of spoonfuls of sauerkraut, and chop it so there are no big pieces, and scrape it into the bowl.  

Cook! 
Add just enough yogurt to coat the sauerkraut.
Then gently drip the soy sauce in until the salty, sour and creamy balance each other.
Add to a salad of crispy, crunchy, sweet vegetables and some fresh sweet lettuce leaves.

Five Spice Garlic Crab - on a Boat

Ever have that wok-fried, still in the shell, spicy garlic crab at a Chinese restaurant?

I have, twice.  This is not the sort of thing your average, neighborhood, week-night, take-out joint is going to have.  First of all, this doesn't take out. Second, it has to be done with fresh, live crab.  It doesn't work anywhere near as well if you just douse already cooked crab with the flavors.  And it should be eaten as soon at you can handle the crab.

What I'm trying to say is, getting this at a restaurant is kind of an event.  Just finding a restaurant that makes this specialty is an important start.  And then getting there may be an ordeal.  (The second time I got my hands on such a specialty was in Boston's China Town.  So yes, getting to the restaurant was something of an ordeal.)  And both these restaurants were well known for their food - and thus required a reservation, or an ocean of patience for a walk-in table, if that had even been available.

But if you find yourself with a decently large burner on a boat (or kitchen that is crab adjacent), a wok-ish pan, 

There's the pan on my awesome Force-10 stove

(mine's a sauce pan/sauté pan cross that kinda works like a wok), enough oil, a head of garlic, salt and some Five-Spice powder, when you pull up some crabs - well then nothing could be easier.  

Well, throwing them back is easier, and steaming them whole is easier, and so is building a small IKEA bookshelf.  But it is totally doable.

I suppose you can also round up the same ingredients at home, and pick up 2 live Dungeness crabs at the fish market/counter, but where's the sense of adventure?  OK, I will concede live crabs in the kitchen is pretty adventurous.

So how does this go down?

You need some decent crab-handling skills, though rubber-banded claws help.  For a quick video on how to clean live crabs, check out this earlier post. (crab dispatching - boat optional, a dock or deck edge or  railing actually works better.)

Once the crab is split and cleaned, Use scissors or a cleaver (or your bare hands... grrrrrrrrr!) to cut the crab legs into segments at the joints.

Discard the pointy tip toes - they have no meat - or not enough to pursue.

Though the toes make great tools for picking out meat if you don't have picks.

Try to cut the joints cleanly to minimize this:

Try to keep the meat IN the shell so it doesn't get overcooked

Chop/cut the cleaned, de-legged body into 4-6 chunks. 

The shell is pretty thin, you can snip around if
cutting it like this seems to crush the body.

Then follow this recipe:

Five Spice Garlic Wok Fried Crab

Ingredients:

1 - 2 Dungeness Crabs* cleaned and cut up as described above.

1 head garlic

1-2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder

1/2 tsp salt
several grinds black pepper

1/4 C oil

Equipment:

Wok or other large bowl shaped pan

Large stirring spatula

Slotted spoon

Paper towels

(Tongs)

Serving platter

Crab cracking device (nut crackers and pliers work in an emergency)

Prep:

Set the cleaned, split crab to the side.  Break up the head of garlic, and get all the big cloves (don't worry about the annoying, tiny ones in the center).  Smack each of the cloves hard enough to crack the skin (heel of your hand, bottom of a pot, etc.).
Peel them and slice them thinnish.  The garlic pieces need to be small enough to fry into garlic chips, but big enough to not burn instantly, nor drive you insane when you need to retrieve them.  6-8 slices per clove is a good guess.

Set out the paper towels, ready for draining the fried garlic.

Measure out the salt and spice and mix together.

Cook!

Heat the oil in the wok over high heat.  Use a garlic slice as a temperature gauge. When it starts to get crispy, turn the heat back to med-high, pluck it out, and add the sliced garlic.  Stir to get it crispy, but still blond. 

Remove the garlic chips onto the paper towels to drain.

Turn the heat back to high, and place 1/3 - 1/2 of the crab in the oil.  There needs to be plenty or room to stir fry the crab.  After the shell turns red (this happens quickly), sprinkle on 1/3 - 1/2 of the spice-salt.  Keep stirring for about 2 minutes. 

Remove the cooked crab to the serving platter, and repeat until all the crab has been cooked.

Sprinkle the garlic chips back over and serve.

Eat with your hands.  Have a shell bowl and plenty of non-special napkins (paper towels) on hand.

Garlic noodles and a mess of sautéed spinach would go great with this. 

A crisp white wine (Sauvignon Blanc, Dry Riesling, dry Chardonnay)  or a dry Chinese Beer all go great with such a thing as well.

Radish & Chive Butter

Radish slices and Chive Butter

Spring CSA deliveries are often full of sharp, peppery and green flavors.  And this year is no exception.  How to enjoy these strong flavors?

Smooth out the bright green oniony flavor with butter - and a bit of salt and vinegar to create a fuller flavor.  Think I'm crazy?  Well, the french have a tradition of butter and salt with their radishes.  And who doesn't love garlic butter?

Radishes & Chive Butter

Ingredients:

radishes

chives & butter 

(approx 1:1 ratio) 

cider vinegar - splash

salt - to taste

Equipment:

knife

cutting board

food processor or fork

Prep:

Scrub the radishes clean, and rinse the chives.

Set up the food processor - or chop the chives very fine.

  

Cook!

Combine the chives and butter until you have very green butter.  Add a pinch of salt and a splash of vinegar.  Taste for a slightly tart flavor, and just enough salt to make the flavors in the butter a little more savory - not necessarily salty.

Slice the radishes.  In half or quarters if small - or into slices if they are large slices like we got.

Eat 'em up.

Garlic Scape Pasta

Fried bread crumbs.  This is an item that screams all that we are told is bad.  Too much processed wheat, gluten, fat, fried, and yeah - they are better with salt.

Well, some days you just gotta eat what tastes good.  Especially when you make it your self (mostly), and The Garlic Scapes are here.  And they won't be here for long.

Make something that will make you remember why you love them. And don't worry about the bad.  It will only happen once (or twice) and, and a seasonal indulgence is what living is all about.  Enjoy!  And then let it go - the seasons roll on.

Garlic Scape and Bread Crumb Pasta


(Step 0: Don't leave fresh bread on the counter while making the kittehs stay inside on a nice day.)


Ingredients:

6-10 garlic scapes

What are garlic scapes?
It is the stalk that grow up out of
hard neck garlic in the spring with a bud
on top that will eventually bloom in to
a flower that looks a bunch like a lily.
(well they are in the same family - alium - as lilies)
soft neck garlic is where we get the cloves.
They also come in not curly.

3 oz (fistfull) spaghetti/long noodles
sweet Italian sausage (or similar)
3 Tbs olive oil
2 handfuls bread crumbs (I used Panko)
salt & pepper
(red pepper flakes - optional)

(bread and nasturtium-shallot-garlic butter, optional)

Equipment:

large pot and lid
colander
sauté pan
stirring spatula
knife
cutting board
serving bowl
spaghetti spoon thingy


Prep:

Set the large pot with water over high heat and bring the noodle water to a boil.

While waiting for the water to boil -
Cut up the scapes - I like to do it on the bias.  Slice the buds on top in half or quarters (depending on how big they are).
Cook the sausages (pan fry or grill - or just pull pre-cooked ones from your freezer), and slice them.

Cook!

Cook the pasta noodles according to directions. (If they finish before you do the rest of the steps, drain the noodles, and add just enough oil to keep the noodles from sticking)

Heat a splash of oil some oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat.  After 3 or so minutes (or a test bread crumb sizzles), add the bread crumbs and start to stir or toss vigorously.  When they look toasty, take them off the heat.  Then add salt and optional red pepper flakes to taste.  Dump them in a bowl, and set them aside.

Add another splash of oil, get the pan hot over medium-high heat, then add the garlic scapes and a pinch of salt.  Sizzle and stir them until the scapes soften and get a few brown edges.

Toss the cooked sausage slices at the end to heat them up, and maybe brown the edges a bit.

Stir together the noodles, the scapes and the bread crumbs.

Serve with amazing garlic bread, and sliced sausage.  Light, slightly acidy red wines goes great with this. (Chianti, Sangiovese, Montepulciano)