Dai Due Double Duty: Secret Ingredient Stuffed Portobellos February 8, 2010

shroomy

Dai Due’s Chaurice sausage stuffed our ’shrooms.  Texas portobellos, on sale at Central Market for $3.99 a pound through February 9, served as the foundation for a meaty mound, topped with crunchy toasted bread crumbs.

What’s the secret ingredient?  Dai Due’s own persimmon Worcestershire sauce.  Now that’s a concoction I would have never thought of!

Thanks to Wendy, Foodie at Central Market, for suggesting I stuff my mushrooms.

SAUSAGE AND SPINACH STUFFED ‘SHROOMS makes 8

• 8 large and 1 medium to large Kitchen Pride Texas-grown portobello mushrooms
• 1 pound package Dai Due’s chaurice sausage, or other local sausage.
  
• 4 Tablespoons organic or local olive oil.  Try Texas Olive Ranch, available at our farmers markets.
  
• 10-ounce bag Cora Lamar’s triple-washed spinach from Poteet.  Available at Central Market for $2.99 a bag.  Or use 10 ounces of another local spinach.  Wash it very well.
  
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• zest of one small local or organic  lemon.  Check with your neighbor.  Get growin’ if you can!
  
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 large clove of domestic organic garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon garam masala.  Click for a recipe.
  
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.
  
• 1 cup cooked quinoa.  I like to season quinoa with ½ teaspoon ground turmeric for 1 cup of raw quinoa.
  
• ½ cup organic or local heavy cream.  Organic Valley is great.  Click for a coupon.  Look for Way Back When’s local dairy products at our farmers markets.  You gotta get there early to get cream or butter!
  
• ½ cup organic or local ½-n-½ yogurt or sour cream.  To read how to make your own, click here.
  
• 1 teaspoon organic mustard.  I usually buy Central Market’s own brand.  Use whatever style you have on hand or prefer.
  
• a generous Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce—Look for Dai Due’s peppery persimmon Worcestershire sauce.  Tangy and savory, it boasts that familiar kick.
• generous teaspoon kosher salt.  I use Diamond Crystal brand.
  
• 1 cup bread crumbs.  I crumble up stale bread and freeze it.  Cornmeal bread, crumbled and lightly toasted, makes incredible bread crumbs.  Sometimes I just eat ‘em with a spoon.
• 3 to 4 Tablespoons organic or local butter, melted
  

Remove stems from mushrooms.  Chop stems and the medium to large whole mushroom finely.  I use the food processor.

Brown the sausage in a skillet and simmer, covered, with about ¾ cup water for 5 minutes.  Remove the sausage and place on a plate to cool a bit while you continue with the recipe.

Heat up ½ Tablespoon olive in a large saute pan with the red pepper flakes and ground coriander.  Add the spinach and wilt, turning frequently.  Stir in lemon zest and place spinach on a plate.  Return pan to heat and add another ½ Tablespoon olive oil.  Stir in the chopped mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the garlic and heat through until fragrant.  Remove from heat.

Halve each sausage lengthwise and then slice each half into ¼” pieces.  Add sausage to the pan and return the pan to the stovetop on low heat.  Chop the spinach and stir it into the skillet along with the garam masala, paprika, and 1 teaspoon salt.  Heat through to finish cooking the sausage.  Stir in quinoa, heavy cream, yogurt, mustard and Worcestershire sauce.  Taste for salt and adjust as necessary.

Prepare the mushrooms.  Place a rimmed baking sheet, large enough to hold the eight portobellos, into the oven and preheat the oven to 400º.  Using a sharp paring knife, slice ¼” deep cuts, spaced ½” apart into the mushroom caps.  Slash again at right angles to the first cuts to create a crosshatched pattern.  Brush the mushrooms on both sides with a total of 3 Tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with a generous teaspoon kosher salt.  Place the mushrooms gill side up on the hot baking sheet, and return the sheet to the oven.  Bake for about 8 minutes, until the portobellos are browning around the edges and have released some of their juices.  Carefully flip the mushrooms over and place back in the oven for another 8 minutes, until the juices have evaporated and the portobellos have browned.  They should smell great!

Mound about a ½ cup of filling onto the gill side of the mushrooms.  Mix the bread crumbs and melted butter together.  Top each mound with about 2 Tablespoons of the bread crumbs.  Place the portobellos back on the baking sheet and return them to the oven under the broiler for a couple minutes to brown the tops.  Serve hot.

Herbal: Bleak at First Glance February 5, 2010

take my oregano, please!

I managed some serious pruning of the lemon verbena recently.  Not that I know what I’m doing, but I hope, hippocratically, to have inflicted no harm.  A rangy creature it was, and devoid of even a single green leaf.   But in closely inspecting the woody tangle I discovered a number of tiny green buds—good news post-big freeze.  The coldcocked kaffir lime still sports some green skin, albeit piebald, and I’m taking that as a positive sign.  The dead wood appearance of the curry bush, a familiarly lifeless sight at this time of year, doesn’t fool me.  I have to admit, though, I feel a little regretful that we hadn’t saved one of those transplanted shoots for ourselves.  Late spring should set my mind at ease, like it always does, when small green frondlets emerge near dirt level.

Our Greek oregano is positively thriving.  If anyone wants to trade for annual/biennial herbs, say, cilantro, dill or parsley for example, I have plenty of this savory herb for bartering (Seriously.  Facebook me.)  Speaking of savory, just in the past year our winter savory really settled in, not that it’s grown to any where near the almost obscene dimensions of the oregano, but it has respectably established itself.  All the rest of the herbs survived the recent arctic chill with varying degrees of success, the tender Mexican mint marigold hanging in there as the weakest of the remaining greened plants.

And a shout out to the mandarin, in our fourth year together, as she (he?  I don’t know) bore over 50 fragrant and loose-skinned tangerines this season.  The fruits seem to continue to sweeten til their number’s up.  A bit on the juicy side, I guess the vesicles suffered a touch of frost and now leak their nectar a little.  Ambrosial.  I recommend this fairly easy tree to citrus-loving gardeners with sunny south facing wall space.  We bought our beauty at the Natural Gardener.

For thumbs blacker than green, try perennials.  That’s ’bout all we do around here and we do alright.  Plant a fancy herb (suitable for your site of course) and you can trade with your more-experienced neighbors when they have too many tomatoes, okra, or hopefully right now, dill and cilantro.  Cilantro.  That’s what I’m hoping for!

PDQ—Pizza Day Quick February 4, 2010

kids' pie

spice your slice

Stealthy Pizza Thursday sneaked up on me, catching me nearly cheeseless, without mushrooms, sans spinach and the kindergartner’s school pickup looming.  Action!  The junior pizzaiolo patted out the crusts. Muir Glen canned fire roasted crushed tomatoes (stocked up on sale)), well drained, blended with dried basil, oregano and surplus fresh thyme still on the counter from beanin’ day.  Plenty of organic garlic, a little turbinado sugar, a couple of anchovies mashed up and the last of that jar of South River’s organic white miso plus an assortment of minced olives (I especially love those dry cured shrivelly black olives, their bitter edge heightening all flavors within reach) combined to tsumanic umamic effect.  Full Quiver Farm’s raw milk cheddar melded the mashup, festooned with the obligatory olive oil-lubed Hillside Farms red onion slices.  Peppered with freshly cracked black pepper, and crushed red pepper and pickled jalapeño peppers for the peppery adults, these pies packed a palate poppin’ punch!  P-P-P-Pizza please!

I Do D’éclair February 4, 2010

baked choux

my d'éclairation

Finally!  That’s right, I finally got a chance to pipe out some éclairs to inject with that crème patissière I whooped up recently.  Pâte à choux, the medium of éclairs, cream puffs (mmm, religieuses), gougères (check out Austin food blogger Fête & Feast’s clever Caprese sliders), Paris-Brest and gâteau St.-Honoré, is actually easy to prepare and sublimes quickly from assembled ingredients to oven-ready forms.  For bakers subject to interruption, however, an untimely break in the process can wreak stalemate, so I postponed production until I could wrangle a reliable block of kitchen time.

There is room for a recess after the initial paste is cooked on the stove top, as it must cool for about 10 minutes before adding the eggs, and the formed dough can even rest overnight if necessary before baking.  But once you boil your liquid you must add all the flour and continuously stir the mixture for a minute or so to cook the starch.  And once you have added your eggs you should move right on to piping (Although Rose Levy Beranbaum affirms that you can store the dough airtight overnight and rebeat before using the next day, it’s sticky stuff.  I prefer to proceed in one pass).  The actual baking takes a while because the dough needs time to dry sufficiently to provide a soft crunch.  So, when watching a little one (or two), you need to know that you can reach certain points in the procedure and complete the operation before the sun goes down.  Hence the delay here at my house.

Enrobed with a simple chocolate glaze, these cream-filled ingots transport me back to the City by the Bay, remembering my favorite bakery there, the bustling Tartine.

PATE A CHOUX makes one dozen 4″ éclairs

• 2 ½ ounces (¾ cup) organic whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 1/8 ounces (½ cup) bread flour, preferably organic
• 1 cup water
• 4 ounces (1 stick) organic butter.  I love Organic Valley.  Click for a coupon.
  
• ½ teaspoon organic sugar.  Central Market’s brand in the 2-pound bag sells for $2.99.
  
• ¼ teaspoon salt.  I like Real Salt.  I buy this in bulk at Whole Foods and bring my own container.
  
• ¾ cup local eggs.  I like to use only one or two whole eggs and the rest egg whites.  A high ratio of whites yields a crispier pastry.

Whisk together the flours and set aside.  Combine the water, butter, sugar and salt in a heavy saucepan (a 2½ to 3-quart size suffices and I like a nonstick or enameled interior) and bring to a full boil over high heat.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all at once, stirring vigorously.  Return the pan to the stovetop and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously for about a minute.  Remove the pan from the heat, give the dough a few more stirs and let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes, until it is no longer hot enough to scramble your eggs (no hotter than 140º if you’re employing a thermometer— but I don’t bother).

You can now mix the dough in your saucepan if you wish, I prefer my stand mixer.  Beranbaum swears by the food processor, but I have yet to try that out.  Gradually add the eggs and beat them in very well.  Eventually the mixture will become fluffy.  You may not need every last drop of your eggs, so hold back on the last couple of tablespoons and add only enough to yield a smooth and shiny, soft (pipeable) dough, thick enough to hold its shape.

Secure a sheet of parchment paper (I like If You Care brand, available at Central Market and Whole Foods) onto a baking sheet (my 13″ X 16½” REMA brand thrift store score, insulated, is perfect) with small dabs of dough on the corners.  Use a pencil and a ruler to mark two 4″ wide rows lengthwise along the paper, leaving a 2″ parting in the middle and about 1″ borders along the top and bottom.

Fill a medium-sized pastry bag, fitted with a ¾” tube (I love to use a star-cut tip, Ateco # 829—technically measuring in at 11/16″) with the pâte à choux and pipe out 12 4-inch lengths, six per row.  You can fashion any excess dough into a couple or more 1¼” or so cream puff shapes in the middle of the lineup for lagniappes.  With a wet fingertip, smooth down any kewpie tails at attention.

Place the baking sheet into a preheated 300º oven.  Raise the heat to 450º and bake for about 15 minutes, until the pastry has puffed and browned.  Reduce the heat back down to 300º and continue to bake for another 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and using a very sharp paring knife, quickly slice a slit in the side of each éclair to allow steam to escape and further dry and crisp the pastry.  Return the panful of puffs to the turned-off oven, prop the door ajar and let them continue drying for another half hour, or longer if convenient.

Filled pastries soften, so I prefer to inject only as many éclairs as we will eat right away.  For this size batch make double the recipe of Crème Patissière. Fit a pastry bag with a ¼” diameter round tip, preferably the Bismarck tip.  Poke the tip into the pastry in three spots, through the side slits or into the bottoms, and pipe in the pastry cream.

Glaze the filled éclairs with this simple chocolate icing:

EASY CHOCOLATE GLAZE

• ¼ cup organic or local heavy cream.  Organic Valley and Promised Land are available in our grocery stores and Way Back When brings their dairy-doings to the farmers markets.
  
• 1 ½ teaspoons organic agave nectar.  Central Market’s own brand is usually the best buy.
• 3 ounces organic semisweet/bittersweet chocolate, chopped.  I love Green & Black’s brand.

Heat the cream and agave nectar to a simmer—you can do this nearly effortlessly in the microwave—and stir in the chocolate until smooth.  Cool at room temperature until you have a spreadable glaze.  Cool it just a shade more, stirring well, and you can thicken the icing to a pipeable consistency and use a pastry bag and basketweave tip to apply the glaze.  Wilton tip #1D will cloak the ‘clairs in two strokes.

Don’t be discouraged by lack of pastry bags and tips.  You can use spoons to form the dough and also to fill the éclairs.  Just cut off the top third of the baked pastry and spoon in the cream.  Replace the “lid” and spread the chocolate glaze on top with a butter knife or small icing spatula.

Eat ‘em up while they’re fresh.  You can store unfilled pastries well-wrapped in the freezer, to fill later.  Refresh the choux in the toaster oven at 350º until heated through and crisped.  Cool before filling and glazing.

Dai Due Salt Pork February 3, 2010

steamy beans

Dai Due’s gettin’ into my pot again.  My bean pot, that is.  This time around their aromatic and prosciutto-esquely funky salt pork—superiorly-seasoned Richardson Farms pork belly—lopped into lardons and rendered crisp, meats its match in a crock of organic black-eyed peas and garbanzos, spattered with half an emergency can of organic black beans.  Local carrots and radishes chunked up the mix while backyard savory, sage, thyme and bay lent herbal essence.  Allium alums Texas onions and organic garlic soffritto’d the misto.  A stash of local cauliflower leaves—you wouldn’t throw those away, would ya?—melted into the meld.  And there you have it.  Ladled over Lowell Farms organic jasmine rice (surprise!) OR boiled and browned  (reserve that fat) organic russet potatoes (on sale now at Newflower Market at $2.50 for a 5-pound bag), oink if you dig pig!

Texas Sweet Potato Bread and Sticky Bun(u)s February 3, 2010

butter up!

stick a fork in this sticky bun

Sweet potato bread.  Simple enough.  And our local markets remain stocked with Texas sweet potatoes.  The bread machine, besides performing a superior knead, makes quick work of smashing up your ‘tater.  You can bake the dough in the machine as well, but with weather like this (someone please send this cold and wet Gaelic atmosphere back for a few days.  I need to synthesize some vitamin D), I’d just as soon crank the oven up.

This recipe yields dough sufficient for one standard-size loaf or two smaller loaves.  The smaller loaves will bake more quickly, saving you time and energy.

Check out the bunus–I mean bonus–recipe for a sweet treat to use up those cheap and juicy Texas oranges, on sale now at HEB for only $1.50 for a 4-pound bag (through February 9).

TEXAS SWEET POTATO BREAD makes one 9″ X 5″ loaf or two small 8½” X 4½” (1-quart) loaves

• 8 ounces (a scant cup) cooked Texas sweet potato, mashed.  Skin-on is fine and preferable.  Standard issue Texas sweet potatoes work best here.  Fancier varieties such as some Japanese cultivars can be drier, and you may have to add up to ¼  cup more water to achieve an elastic dough.
  
• scant 1 cup local milk, scalded (and cooled off a bit if not using a bread machine).  I use goat’s milk from either Swede Farm Dairy or Wateroak Farm.  Way Back When sells local cow’s milk at our farmers markets.
  
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt.  I like Real Salt.
  
• 1 Tablespoon local honey.  I love Good Flow’s local wildflower nectar.  I buy it in bulk at Central Market and bring my own container.
  
• 3 Tablespoons organic butter.  Organic Valley of course.  Click for a coupon.
  
• 3 Tablespoons local and/or organic cornmeal.  I usually buy Arrowhead Mills.
  
• 200 grams (about 1 ¾ cups) organic white whole wheat flour.  Whole Foods offers the best price on King Arthur brand in the 5-pound bag.
  
• 250 grams (about 2 cups plus 1 Tablespoon) organic all purpose flour.  Whole Foods again.  Their 365 brand in the 5-pound bag is normally the best buy.
  
• 1 ½ teaspoons bread machine yeast (instant or rapid rise—NOT active dry)

Knead the dough how you please.  For my bread machine, I simply place the ingredients into the pan in the order listed.  For other mixing methods, whisk together the dry ingredients, then mix in the rest and knead until you have a smooth dough.

You can give the dough a cool rise in the garage or laundry room for several hours, depending on ambient temperature, or a colder overnight rise in the fridge, whatever suits your schedule.  Be sure to cover the dough with greased plastic wrap.  I have replaced most of the plastic wrap that I use with bags that I get when purchasing items in obligatory bags.  I cut the bags so they lie flat and wash them expeditiously in the (clothes) washing machine.

Form a loaf or two and place the dough into well-greased pans (I like to use coconut oil for this bread), lined on the bottom with greased parchment paper (this dough can stick).  Cover again with the plastic wrap and let rise until puffy.  Slash each loaf with a very sharp paring knife (or razor, or a lame) lengthwise down the center for an attractive split.

Bake in a preheated 350º oven (preferably on a baking stone) for about 50 minutes for a larger loaf and about 35 minutes for the smaller breads.  The loaves should be nicely browned and hollow sounding when tapped with your finger.  Give the bread a minute to rest in the pan before turning it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.

This bread enjoys the company of organic peanut butter (I use Central Market’s creamy “no-stir”) and a nummy jam.  Blackberry or sweet orange marmalade would play well.

You can use this same dough to whoop up some simple cinnamon rolls.  Or go all out with this bonus recipe:

TEXAS SWEET POTATO AND ORANGE STICKY BUNS makes 9 rolls

• 1 recipe Texas Sweet Potato Bread dough, through the cold rise
  

• 2  cups fresh squeezed Texas orange juice.  Zest one before you juice it.  If you have time, zest a few and save the zest in the freezer for sparkling your cooking later in the year.
  
• 50 grams (¼ cup) organic sugar.  Central Market’s brand is a good value at $2.99 for a 2-pound bag.
  
• 50 grams (¼ cup) organic light brown sugar.  CM again, with a 1 ½-pound bag for $2.99.
  
• 3 Tablespoons organic butter.  See Organic Valley above.
  

• 50 grams (¼ cup) organic sugar
  
• 104 grams (½ cup) organic light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon salt.  See Real Salt above.
  
• 2 teaspoons fresh orange zest from your Texas oranges
• 1 Tablespoon organic butter, melted
  

Press the dough down and let it rise at warmish room temperature while you work on the glaze and filling.  The cold dough can take more than two hours to come around (and you’ll need some time to juice all those oranges), so you may even have a chance to load the dishwasher.

Reduce the juice in the microwave to ½ cup.  I use a 1-quart Pyrex measuring cup and start with a little over a cup for 10 minutes on HIGH.  Add the rest of the OJ to the cup and continue to cook on HIGH for at least another 12 minutes.  Do watch carefully.  If you get distracted for too long with a dirty diaper or fussy baby you can wind up with just a couple tablespoons of burnt caramel.

Pour the reduced orange juice into a small (8″) non-stick or enameled skillet.  Add the sugars and butter (the three Tablespoons) and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Cook for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is thickened and syrupy.  Pour the glaze into a (greased) foil-lined 10″ square pan.  Let cool for at least 20 minutes to firm up while you continue with the rest of the recipe.

Combine the filling ingredients (sugars, spices and 1 Tablespoon butter).  I use the hot syrup skillet and still-hot electric burner to melt the butter without additional electricity.  Roll the dough out to a 12″ X 10″ rectangle—a nonstick mat really helps here.  Cover the dough with the filling, spreading it to within ½ inch of the border.  Roll the dough up into a tight log, starting with a long end, and pinch the seam closed.  Using a large, sharp knife, cut the log into 9 equalish slices—not quite 1½” wide.  Place each slice—spirals up—into the glaze-lined pan.  Cover with the plastic again and let rise until puffy, about an hour, maybe a little longer if the house is cold.

Bake at 350º for about 35 minutes, until very well-risen, lightly browned  and feeling “set” when tapped in the center.  Let cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes before unmolding onto a heat proof platter.  Quickly scrape all the glaze onto the buns.  Let cool for at least another 10 minutes before digging in.

Enjoy warm!

Weekly Sales February 3, 2010

cheap-a-doodle-doo!

Whole Foods assorted varieties Green & Black’s organic chocolate bars on sale for $2.50 each.

Central Market sale Madhava organic agave nectar, light or dark, 23.5 ounces  $5.49

LAST DAY!!!:

• HEB:  Texas oranges 4-pound bag only $1.50

• Central Market:  organic piñata apples $1.49 a pound and Texas-grown Portobello mushrooms $3.99 a pound

Specials through February 10:

• Newflower Market:  Texas Rio grapefruit 3 for $1.  Organic produce: russet potatoes 5# bag 2 for $5, granny smith & golden delicious apples $1.49 a pound, red or yellow sweet onions 89¢ a pound.  Bulk deal: organic oats, rolled, quick or steel-cut only 89¢ a pound

• Sun Harvest:  organic Fuji apples 3-pound bag for $2.97

Remember to sign up for my “Cheap Tweets” on twitter (atxfrugalfoodie) for a daily update/recap of specials on local and sustainable goodies!

Waffle Cones—Puddin’ Up with It January 31, 2010

what a spread

wafer wafer

A surplus of milk—we don’t drink the stuff so our supply catches up with us sometimes—wound up as a large bowl of crème pâtissière.  Naturally I wanted to bake a batch of éclairs (anyone familiar with San Francisco’s Tartine bakery?  Legendary éclairs there.  They warrant a Muni detour—yes, every day!— and are definitely worth waiting in the line that wraps around the corner.  Try the frangipane croissant, too.   I might whoop up a pan of those when I retire.)

Life, that is, children, kept me from pâte à choux-ing (gesundheit!) this week.  But waffle cone iron cookies baked up crisp and quick, the simple batter requiring no leavener, no resting, and no precooking.  Spread your wafers with pastry cream, stacking them if you wish to construct a Napoleonic dessert.  If you don’t have a waffle cone iron (I bought mine at the thrift store, of course, but I think it’s the only one I’ve come across in resale shops), pizzelle irons (I do see these occasionally) and krumkake irons (haven’t found a used one yet) will produce perfectly acceptable wafers just as handily.

All this talk of waffle cones and irons reminds me of my friends at Traveling Bistro right here in Austin, Texas.  These folks crisp up imaginatively flavored hot waffles every Sunday for their weekly brunches.  Check ‘em out!

WAFFLE CONES makes about 8 large wafers

• 1 local egg
  
• 1 local egg white
• ¼ teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.
  
• 100 grams (½ cup) organic sugar.  Central Market sells their own brand for $2.99 for a 2-pound bag.
  
• flavoring:  ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and/or 1 teaspoon citrus zest
  
• 40 grams organic white whole wheat flour.  Whole Foods offers King Arthur brand in the 5-pound bag for the best deal.
  
• 40 grams (1/3 cup) organic all-purpose flour.  WF 365 brand is usually the least expensive.
  
• 2 Tablespoons organic butter, melted and cooled.  I love Organic Valley.  Click for a coupon.
  

Whisk together the eggs and salt.  Whisk in the sugar and flavoring until the eggs lighten in color and consistency.  An old-fashioned eggbeater shines here.  Whisk in the flours then stir in the butter.

Heat up your iron hot.  For adjustable irons, try the medium setting first.  You’ll have to play around (or read your instruction manual!) to determine the amount of batter required and best cooking time.  For my old Toastmaster model, a generous 2 Tablespoon scoop (a spring-loaded scooper helps) and a generous minute of baking produced wafers about 6½” across.

Let your cookies cool and crisp on a rack before spreading them with pastry cream (or preserves or creme de marrons or whatever you like).

A few words on crème pâtissière.  Here’s a basic formula:  1 cup milk, heated to hot, whisked into (combined) ½ cup sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt and 3 Tablespoons flour.  Cook, whisking constantly, over medium-low heat until thickened and smooth, then temper in 2 egg yolks and continue to cook and whisk until the mixture boils.  Be sure to boil the pastry cream, as the yolks contain an enzyme that must be deactivated lest your eggs, defiantly deliquescent, reliquefy the cream later.  Pour the hot pudding (that’s what we have here!) into a wide bowl and stir in 2 Tablespoons butter and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.  Taste for sweetness and add more sugar if your tooth requires it.  Place a sheet of waxed paper directly onto the surface of the crème and cut a few small slits in the paper with a sharp knife.  Let cool and refrigerate right away.

Rutabaga Rice January 28, 2010

luscious links

A recent purchase of Dai Due’s bison and ginger sausage (Thunderheart Bison and local(!) ginger root) got me hankerin’ for Indian food (no, really?).  Armed with a rotund rutabaga, courtesy of Johnson’s Backyard Garden at Sunset Valley Farmers Market, I assembled a one-pot meal, spiced rice dish.  Carnivores dug in, lured by lengths of meat.

I don’t cook rutabaga much.  It tastes good and sweet and rooty-tooty, and I totally go for that kind of thing.  But big bad ‘bagas just don’t show up in our local markets with the same frequency as turnips, radishes and kohlrabi.  I offer a cooking suggestion anyways:   Cut it into small cubes (take care busting into it–rutabaga’s a tough tuber to crack), then simmer it in a little apple juice with a dab of mustard, a dash of garam masala, a pinch of turmeric and salt to taste. Finish the dish with your best butter (I recommend Lucky Layla from Texas or Organic Valley Pasture butter), fresh cilantro or parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice.  I’d pepper it with lots of cracked black pepper, too, but not on the kids’ portions.

If you just can’t get enough rutabaga—I mean if you can get enough, to grace your table again, that is, try this Indian-inspired pilaf.

RUTABAGA RICE WITH SAUSAGE serves a family with possible leftovers, depending on your family size!

• 2 cups Indian or Pakistani basmati rice, rinsed well, soaked in water for 10 minutes, then drained and rested in a sieve for another 10 minutes.  I buy 10-pound bags at Fiesta or MGM.
  
• 1 pound local sausage.  Dai Due’s bison and ginger sausage, seductively succulent, blended well with the Indian-spiced flavors in this dish, but a local kielbasa would work, too.  I’d also consider it in a bun with sauerkraut and spicy mustard.  But that’s a different post.
  
• 1  good-sized local rutabaga, about as big as a largish grapefruit, well peeled and cut into batons (about 1/3″ thick “short french fry” pieces)
• 3 Tablespoons yogurt.  I make my own and it’s easy.  Click to see how.  I usually use Swede Farm Dairy’s goat milk, available at SVFM.  Other local options include Wateroak Farms’ goat milk (SVFM) and now Way Back When’s cow’s milk available at SVFM and Austin Farmers Market.
  
• 2 teaspoons minced or grated fresh ginger root—I use a Microplane.
• 2 teaspoons minced hot green chile, if you have it and you wanna.  Otherwise use about ½ teaspoon paprika.
• 2 Tablepsoons minced local cilantro—growin’ right now!
• ¼ cup organic dessicated shredded coconut—I like Let’s Do…Organic brand, available at our local grocery stores like Central Market and Whole Foods.
  

• 1 or 2 Tablespoons organic coconut oil.  Nutiva in the big ole jar or Whole Foods 365 are usually the best buys.
• 9 whole cloves
• about a 2½” piece of cinnamon stick
• 1 large bay leaf, preferably fresh.  Try growing your own!  Bay is hardy and easy to care for.  My specimen is proof.
• 2 ½ teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 ½ to 3 teaspoons salt.  I like Real Salt.  Whole Foods carries it in the bulk department.
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar—I buy this in bulk at Central Market.
  
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice from a local and/or organic lemon.  I got a mind to puttin’ in a lemon tree soon.  Ask your neighbors.
• 3 ¼ cups water
• several very well peeled broccoli stems, diced small.  Yep.  I’m still going whole hog on broccoli.  Use it or lose it!
  
• lemon wedges, if desired

Combine yogurt with the next four ingredients and mix in the rutabaga.  Let the mixture sit while you prepare the rest of the recipe.  Combine the whole spices (cloves through the cumin) in a small dish and combine the powdered seasonings (salt through the turbinado sugar) in another small dish.  Keep these spice stashes handy.

In a large saute pan or wide casserole pan (stovetop safe), brown the sausage links on all sides over medium-high heat.  Remove to a plate and set aside.  Add the coconut oil and whole spices to the pan and toast on medium-high heat until the cumin smells as browned and toasty as you like.  Dump in the rutabaga and stir and fry until the tuber has browned some.  Add the powdered spices, lemon juice and water, raise the heat to high, cover the pan with a lid (I prefer a see-through top) and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to LOW and cook for 10 minutes.  Quickly lift the lid and scatter the broccoli stems over the surface and place the sausages on top.  Replace the lid and continue cooking on LOW for another 10 minutes.  When finished, place the pan on a cooling rack or trivet and let sit for 10 minutes before carefully fluffing the rice.

Slice the sausages if you want to.  And squeeze some lemon juice over individual servings for a little zing.

• 3 ¼ cups water
• 
  

Frito Meringues January 25, 2010

corny cookies

This title sounds like wordplay to my ears.  Can’t place that pun though.  Let me know if you get it.

Using up the last of the game night Central Market organic corn chips (had to arm our pantry with plenty of frito pie fixin’s), I took advantage of a cloudless, low humidity day to whoop up meringue cookies.  The salty and the sweet, all crunchy to boot.  And easy.

FRITO MERINGUES makes about 30 cookies

• 3 egg whites (90 grams) from local eggs—not a trace of yolk (or any other fat) in here, please
  
• 10 ½ ounces (1 ½ cups, packed) organic light brown sugar.  Central Market brand is usually the best buy.
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or homemade vanilla rum
• 1 6-ounce bag Central Market organic corn chips—This is the only organic brand I’ve found  (and I’ve searched for years!!)

Get to whoopin’ up your egg whites, preferably using a stand mixer.   Meanwhile, crush up the corn chips.  I spin ‘em in the food processor.  When your egg whites are foaming up to nearly soft peaks, add the sugar and continue whipping until the meringue looms lofty and stiffly peaks.  Beat in the vanilla.  Fold in the crushed corn chips, in two batches if you wish, and scoop out 2 Tablespoon portions (I use a spring-loaded scooper) onto parchment lined baking sheets, leaving a couple inches between mounds.

Bake at 300º for about 20 minutes, until cracked and the surface has set, but the cookies are still soft and moist inside.  Place cookie sheets on racks to cool for a minute or two before carefully loosening meringues from parchment with a pancake turner and setting the cookies on the cooling rack to finish cooling.