Pigs in Pillows—Corny! June 9, 2010

grab a dog!

Crawling back to my blog.  Do you call that clogging?

This past Saturday we were wooed and wowed by Homestead Farms hot dogs at the SFC farmers market at Sunset Valley.  I hadn’t even planned on buying meat that trip but Austin Frugal Foodie can’t resist a frankfurter!  Homestead Farms raises grassfed cattle in the Waco area and fashions the meat into a selection of charcuterie including cold cuts, which I’d previously purchased at the Austin Farmers Market downtown.  The folks running the sales booth are sweet sellers hawking sustainable and tasty Texas beef.  A warm sample of wiener was all it took to sway me and I immediately began brainstorming both haute-doggery and plebian preparations.

Homestead Farms hot dogs, while not as smooth and homogeneous as mass-market franks, deliver that familiar flavor, so yummy with yellow mustard—I like Central Market organic.  Or lots of ketchup—that’s how the kindergartner digs ’em.

Here’s an easy and totally fun recipe to enjoy with children young and old.  Portable, the finished franks can conveniently tag along to the park when it stops raining.

PORKYPONES makes about 19 -21 pig pockets (beef bullets?)

• 2 ounces (1/2 stick) organic butter, melted and browned a bit.  I love Organic Valley.  Click for a coupon.
  
• 3 Tablespoons turbinado sugar.  I buy this in bulk.  Remember to bring your own container and have the staff tare the weight for you.
  
• 1 cup local milk.  Check out  Swede Farm Dairy and Wateroak Farms goat milk.
  
• 2 local eggs
  
• 1 teaspoon salt.  I like Real Salt.
  
• 121 grams (1 cup) organic all-purpose flour.  Whole Foods 365 brand in the 5# bag is usually the best buy.
  
• 4 1/8 ounces (3/4 cup) organic cornmeal. I generally choose Arrowhead Mills.
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, sieved (I use Rumford, aluminum-free and non-GMO)
• 3 Homestead Farms hot dogs, or other local frankfurters (or choose organic), cut in half crosswise and each half quartered into 4 strips
  

Grease up three cornstick pans with the lube of your choice.  Organic neutral oils, melted butter and pork fat will all work.  Preheat the oven to 425°.  I use the hot oven to melt and brown the butter.  Just put it in an ovenproof saucepan and stick it in there.  Remember to grab a potholder before reaching for the pan! Let the butter cool a bit on a cooling rack.

Whisk together the sugar, milk, eggs and salt.  Whisk together your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Pour the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients and barely combine them using a flexible spatula if you have one.  You only want to unite these elements about halfway.  Pour your butter over the mess and continue to combine the ingredients just until a few very discernible streaks of flour and butter remain.  Don’t overstir.

Using a large spoon, fill each cornstick cavity with batter.  Place one hot dog strip into each section, skin-side down.  Press the wiener into the batter a bit to tuck it in.

Bake for about 12 minutes, until the batter is cooked through and lightly browned.  Remove pans from the oven and carefully unmold each porkypone, placing them on a cooling rack.

Serve with your favorite dog dressin’s!  Porkypones taste great at room temperature, too.

Turophile’s Treat—Locavore’s Leftover Lasagna March 20, 2010

plush mush

pourin' pone

In these first two photos I have just finished baking a batch of polenta, bound and enriched by my parmesan broth.   Adorned with nothing more than black pepper, this gruel was plainly the most luscious version I’d ever cooked.  Good enough to justify hoarding all those Reggiano rinds!  Because I had plans for this corny slab, I managed to limit my portion that morning to a small sampling.  Destined for the limelight in the layers of a catch-all casserole, my polenta plank rested overnight before joining forces with an ensemble cast of leftovers and fresh local flavors.

A hefty Texas-grown leek ($2.99 a bundle at Central Market—inspect the tag for provenance), sliced and sauteed with local young garlic, (available from Montesino Farm and Hairston Creek Farm at Sunset Valley Farmers Market) and seasoned with fresh backyard sage and thyme, provided an aromatic foundation for chopped and browned Kitchen Pride cremini mushrooms plus roasted local spaghetti squash from the freezer (that’s the end of that!).  In its gobbling finale, a generous helping of the last of the poached turkey leg meated its match.  Moistened with a bit of broth (freezer clear-out again) and greenly flecked with fresh Texas-grown parsley, the fleshy hash stratified between sheets of polenta, richly laminated with lots of shredded local cheese (I love Full Quiver Farm’s sharp cheddar.  Look for their booths at the Austin Farmers Market and Barton Creek Farmers Market.)

cast off casserole

pretty please with cheese on top

I baked the mess until browned and bubbling.  After a 10-minute eternity, we dug on in.  A taste of winter on a wintry first day of spring.

Happy Vernal Equinox!

Green(s) Tasso–Sustainable Sustenance from Dai Due March 17, 2010

emerald I'll eat that

Dai Due‘s nitrate-free tasso, fashioned from seasoned and smoked Richardson Farms local grass-fed pork, likkered up my pot o’ greens as only pig parts can.  Pressure-cooked for 20 minutes with a bay leaf to flavor a hearty broth, the tasso pieces yielded plenty of meat, picked off in shreds to be added back later.

Into the brew I tossed Texas-grown, Texas-sized collards and mustard greens, only 99¢ a bunch at Central Market and HEB, local turnips, cubed, one chopped local onion, a few organic garlic cloves, smashed and chopped, and some salt.  The pressure cooker required only 8 minutes to tenderize the mighty leaves and roots.  A pinch of turbinado sugar and two capfuls of organic apple cider vinegar later (Whole Foods brand in the quart bottle is usually the best buy), I returned the tasso meat to the mix and had myself a fine bowl of greens, peppered aplenty.

Save the fat, too.  Chopped and rendered, would-be-discards (yes, after boiling into broth) become rich crumbs that dissolve instantly in your mouth.  A fine, fatty garnish, especially for a starchy side like polenta, which creates a comforting landing for a mess o’ greens.  I buy Arrowhead Mills organic yellow corn grits and bake them up into a plushly yielding mound using Paula Wolfert’s oven method, a simple technique requiring minimal effort from the cook.

Wear your green while eatin’ your greens—for good luck—and no pinches!

Pepper in Your Pot: Dai Due Kielbasa and Rice with Cabbage February 19, 2010

sausage and rice is nice

The house smells great right now.  I’m brewin’ up some pepper broth (finally!) with the frozen bag of pepper trimmings that has rested undisturbed since the last local bell graced our kitchen—some weeks ago, at least.  Before a friend enlightened me about her family’s practice of distilling sweet peppers’ essence from the stems, seeds and ribs, I had always tossed the remains into the compost.  What a waste!  Now the pepper parts warrant their own freezer bag.  Augmented by the occasional onion end (not too many, please), the bag broths up savory and deeply aromatic, with nary a meat scrap or bay leaf.

Taking it easy on myself (somebody has to), I just dump the capsicum contents into the crock and slow cook ’em on HIGH for a couple hours or so.  The mouthwatering fragrance fills the air with a delectable scent that promises a delicious dish ahead:  Dai Due sausage and rice.  Again?  Yes.  Thankfully, again!  And an easy Indian-style cabbage side for a bonus.

You’ll be using 2 separate large skillets for this two-pot meal.  Remember you can purchase most spices in small amounts from your grocery store’s bulk department.  I bring in my own containers.

SAUSAGE AND RICE serves the family plus leftovers

• 1 cup basmati rice, rinsed well (3 times!) soaked in water and/or pepper broth for 10 minutes, drained (save the soaking liquid) and rested for at least 10 minutes
  
• 4 Tablespoons ghee.  I make my own ghee from Organic Valley butter.  Click for instructions.
• 1 Tablespoon high smoke point oil, preferably organic.  I like Spectrum‘s oils.
  
• 1 pound excellent local sausage links, such as Dai Due’s kielbasa (which blends seamlessly with these seasonings)
  
• 1 local or organic onion, halved and thinly sliced pole to pole.  Hillside Farms, at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market, was still selling reds and yellows the last time I checked.
  
• a couple of thin quarter-sized slices of organic ginger root.  I almost never peel fresh ginger.  Handle your own root as you please.
  
• 1″ piece cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 black cardamom pods (or 3 or 4 green, but I prefer the large smoky pods of black cardamom for this dish.)
  
• 1 bay leaf.  Get growin’!
  
• 1 star anise
• pinch of turbinado sugar.  I buy this in bulk at Central Market.
  

Heat 2 Tablespoons ghee in a large (12″) skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions and ¼ teaspoon salt (I like Real Salt) and stir and fry until the slices are well browned.  Remove pan from burner and replace with another large skillet (not nonstick here).  Heat it up on HIGH and add the tablespoon of oil followed quickly by the sausage links.  Brown the sausages on both sides .  Place the links on a plate and set aside (they shouldn’t be cooked through).  Set the pan aside, as well.

Transfer the onions to a separate plate and put the onion pan back on the burner over medium heat.  Add the remaining 2 tablespoons ghee and the spices and toast them until they smell good and roasty to you.  Add back the onions plus the ginger slices and drained (and rested) rice and stir and saute until the rice grains glisten and separate.

Pour in the soaking liquid (use 1 2/3 cups) and sugar plus another ¼ teaspoon salt, turn the heat to HIGH and bring to a boil.  Place a tight-fitting lid on top, lower the heat to lowest and cook for 10 minutes.  Quickly remove the lid, slide the sausages on top of the rice and replace the lid.  Continue cooking for another 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let rest 10 minutes before fluffing the rice and removing the whole spices.  Serve with the cabbage.

This easy cabbage preparation, revelatory in its combination of caraway and cardamom, plays cross-cultural ambassador with the Indo-European flavors of the  kielbasa and rice.

NORTHWEST INDIAN STYLE CABBAGE serves the family, with leftovers a possibility depending on their love of kohl

• 2 or 3 Tablespoons ghee
• 1 local or organic onion, halved and sliced pole to pole
• ¼ teaspoon caraway seeds
• 4 black peppercorns
• heaping ¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds (from green cardamom pods).  You can buys these already popped out of the pods (decorticated) but I just crack the pods and pick them out myself.
• heaping ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon paprika or cayenne—I have to keep this dish rated G for the young ‘uns
• 1 cup organic canned whole tomatoes, crushed.  I use a potato masher for this.  If you didn’t stock up on Muir Glen when it was on special recently, you can find Whole Foods 365 brand and Central Market brand organic canned tomatoes at reasonable prices.
  
• 1 clove organic domestic garlic, pressed or minced
• half a 3-pound local cabbage, outermost leaves removed if tough, cored, quartered and sliced into shreds.  You’ll find plenty of affordable Texas-grown cabbage at our farmers markets and local grocery stores.
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon garam masala.  Click for a recipe.
• several Tablespoons fresh chopped local cilantro, easy to find right now.  Try growing your own.  Tis the season, before it gets too hot.
  

Heat the ghee in the sausage skillet on medium heat.  Add the whole spices and fry until toasted to your taste.  Add the onion and saute until softened.  It’s quite alright (and deliciouser) for the onion to pick up some brown patches.  Dump in the ground spices (except garam masala), give ’em a stir and then add the tomatoes and garlic.  Cook and stir until thickened, then add the cabbage and salt.  The pan will be very full.  Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the cabbage is wilted to your liking.  If the sauce sticks to the pan and browns a bit, that’s fine.  Just add a few tablespoons of water to deglaze.  The tomato fond will enrich the dish, deepening the flavors.

When your cabbage is cooked, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cilantro.  Correct the salt if necessary and serve.

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.

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
• 
  

Re-in(Chili con)Carne-tion January 13, 2010

Had I enough cooked rice on hand, I'd have stratified that in as well.

To use up the last couple quarts of game night chili, I recently casseroled my cache and topped the whole thing with a bag of crushed Central Market organic corn chips (otherwise known as “fritos” around here).  Melded with middle layers of mashed baked Texas sweet potatoes seasoned with salsa and a generous mop of Organic Valley pepper jack, I served up steamy scoops atop Lowell Farms Texas-grown organic jasmine rice, to rave reviews.  Let’s hear it for luscious leftovers!

I won’t attempt to taunt Texans with my chili recipe, but I will admit to a 3:1 ratio of Richardson Farms’ beef and pork.  Plus my homemade chili powder, a can of Lone Star (the national beer of Texas) and in the interest of full disclosure, I’ll fess up to adding organic canned tomatoes and slow-cooked organic black beans (I swear I’m not trying to be irreverent). Chili how you choose, and resurrect the remainder.

Deconstructing Broccoli Ditto—Dilly Dumplings December 7, 2009

What's the dill?

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the latest issue of edible AUSTIN magazine (No. 11 Winter 2009).  What a wonderful way for the baby-bound and nearly housebound to start out “Eat Local Week” ( December 5-12, right here in your own town.)  Of the wealth of inspiring and well-written articles (including Jardine Libaire’s thoughtful piece on my favorite charcuterie source in “Marketplace” Dai Due Butcher Shop),  I found my kitchen self particularly compelled by Boggy Creek Farm matriarch Carole Ann Sayles’ “Seasonal Muse” column, Deconstructing Broccoli. Versatile, delicious, easy to prepare and of course, a vetted superfood, broccoli effortlessly negotiates the meal from soup to dessert (see my Broccoli Surprise Carrot Cake recipe).

My cornucopic dill bouquet from Finca Pura Vida (now at the budding HOPE market on Sundays) dared me to dumpling with the spoils of Thanksgiving, plus leftover broccoli stems.  The stew component is flexible.  Use whatever suitable vegetables you have.  And if your palate bears the unfortunate scars of a dried dill upbringing, remember you can always substitute plenty of parsley, or even celery leaves or fennel fronds.

Quickly mixed with Richardson Farms locally-grown, freshly-ground whole wheat flour and organic heavy cream, these delicate dumplings are the lightest, most tender I’ve ever tried.

TURKEY AND DILLY DUMPLINGS makes about 8 servings

• a couple Tablespoons good fat.  Roasted poultry fat, bacon grease or butter are good choices.
  
• local or organic onions, chopped kinda fine
  
• local or organic carrots, diced (approximately) smallish
  
• 2 bay leaves.  You can buy bay leaf plants at our local farmers markets and nurseries.  Bays are quite hardy and easy to take care of.
  
• local broccoli stems, well peeled and diced or other local and/or organic veggies, chopped into small bite-sized pieces
• organic garlic, a clove or so, minced
  
• fresh herbs—I like lots of fresh thyme and a little fresh rosemary.  Grow ’em!
• 1/3 cup organic flour—I sometimes use whole grain flours for thickening, but all-purpose flour lends a cleaner look.  Whole Foods 365 brand is usually the best buy.
  
• ¾ cup dry sherry.  I recommend a brand that you can drink, as opposed to “cooking sherry.”  It doesn’t have to be top of the line.  I buy Osborne because I can get it at work.
• 5 cups good broth, preferably homemade (see Stock Tips).  Our middens made for two large batches.
• 1/3 cup organic or local (such as Promised Land) heavy cream.  I usually use Organic Valley.  Click for a coupon.
  
• 2 teaspoon or so kosher salt.  I use Diamond Crystal.
• 3 cups cooked shredded turkey or chicken dark meat.  I freeze leftover cooked turkey meat in broth.

• 242 grams (about 2 scant cups) whole wheat flour—either Richardson Farms or organic
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder, sieved.  I like Rumford non-GMO and aluminum-free.
  
• generous ½ teaspoon salt.  I recommend Real Salt.
  
• freshly ground black pepper
• local and/or organic lemon zest
• ½ cup chopped fresh dill.  Don’t forget to stash the stems for the stockpot.
  
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream

• freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste.  Local Meyers are easy to find—and grow!

In a Dutch oven or other suitable stewing pot, saute your aromatics and veggies in the fat until the onion becomes translucent.  Add the flour and cook and stir for a minute.  Pour in the sherry and stir, scraping the pan bottom to release any fond.  Pour in the broth and cream and add the salt.  Bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat until the veggies are cooked.  If you’re using broccoli or another potentially odiferous cruciferous, add it later to avoid overcooking.  Carrots will take about 20 minutes, so add broccoli after about 15 minutes.  Taste for salt and add the meat.

Whisk the flour together with the next five ingredients, then stir in the cream with a fork.  The dough will be firm.  Using a spring-loaded scoop (my preference) or a couple of spoons, scoop out small golf ball sized dough blobs and drop them into the simmering stew as you go.  You should wind up with around 18 dumplings.  Cover the pot and simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, until the dumpling have about doubled in size and are cooked through.  Squeeze some lemon juice around the perimeter and sneak your wooden spoon in from the sides to incorporate it into the stew.

Serve hot!

Tangy Texas Tangerine Chicken November 19, 2009

Texas Tangerine, she is all they claim...

We lucky Austinites can purchase Orange Blossom Farms fragrant organic tangerines at both the Austin Farmers Market and Sunset Valley Farmers Market.  Texas citrus season is NOW (although my own mandarin tree, laden in its fourth year with at least 50 fruits, is still transforming green globes into the orange of winter’s gold) and I’m sure you’ve already been enjoying Texas ruby red grapefruit (Rio Star) and the Lone Star state’s sweet juicing oranges.  Grab yourself a $5 bag of Texas tangerines and a pack of chicken legs from one of our local and sustainable operations and whip up some Chinese-style comfort food.

TANGY TEXAS TANGERINE CHICKEN serves several

• about 1½ pounds chicken leg quarters, separated, or thighs, from local producers at our farmers markets
  
• 2 Tablespoons neutral flavored high smoke point oil.  I like Spectrum‘s organic peanut oil available at Whole Foods.
• 1 large local green onion, finely chopped, white and light green parts separated from the dark green parts.  Hairston Creek Farm has been selling lovely long-leafed scallions.
  
• 3 strips of organic Texas tangerine peel, about 3″ long, white pith removed (use a sharp paring knife held parallel to the counter), minced
• 3 or more dried red Chinese chile peppers
• ½ teaspoon ground, roasted Szechuan peppercorns.  You can buy these, whole and untoasted, in bulk at Central Market.  Substitute fresh cracked black pepper if necessary.
  
• ¼ teaspoon ground dried ginger
  
• 1 cup fresh-squeezed organic Texas tangerine juice
• ½ cup broth, preferably homemade unsalted.  See Stock Tips.
  
• ¼ cup bitter (Seville) orange marmalade
• 2 Tablespoons organic white wine vinegar.  I use Spectrum.
  
• 1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar
• 2 ½ teaspoons organic soy sauce.  I like Eden or San-J.
• 1 teaspoon organic toasted sesame oil (Spectrum again) or a generous teaspoon of best-quality butter–Organic Valley or Lucky Layla (from Texas)
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 Tablespoon cold broth

Heat up a large heavy skillet over highest heat.  When it’s good and pipin’ hot, add your oil, swirl it around and lay in your chicken pieces, skin side down.  Brown well on both sides, then remove chicken to a plate and set aside.  Pour off all but a Tablespoon or so of the fat in the pan (reserve this flavorful grease for stir-frying tofu or veggies) and put the pan back on the stove at medium-high heat.  Bloom your aromatics—scallion whites, tangerine peel and chiles—in the hot fat for a minute then stir in the powdered spices.  Add the next six ingredients (through the soy sauce), bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add back the chicken, skin side down, cover and simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, turning the chicken pieces over once, until the meat tests done.  Remove chicken from the sauce and raise the heat to medium-high.  Stir up a slurry of the cornstarch and cold broth and stir it and the scallion greens into the simmering sauce.  It will thicken right away.  Stir in the sesame oil or butter.

Serve the chicken and sauce with hot Lowell Farms jasmine rice.  You can either set a chicken piece atop a mound of rice and nap it with the sauce or, as is my family’s preference, debone the chicken and mix it into the sauce, to be ladled over the rice.  Don’t forget to save the skin and bones for the stock pot!

Bratwurst Supper Redux October 20, 2009

With about a third of the previous night’s Sausage Skillet Supper remaining, I gave the leftovers a makeover.  Easy and good.  And with plenty of Dai Due‘s Wurtenberg bratwurst still in the pan, nobody complained.

SAUSAGE SKILLET SUPPER REBOUND serves several

• about a Tablespoon yummy fat.  Roasted poultry fat (save it in the freezer) or good quality lard are the best options here.
• 2 bunches of radishes, with leaves.  Hairston Creek Farm has begun harvesting their peppery pink orbs.
• one  good sized tart apple, peeled and cored and medium to coarsely shredded or diced.  Love Creek Orchards helps our family get their fruit quota deliciously.
• one big sprig of fresh thyme
• one medium to smallish bay leaf
• some broth or stock, if you have any, or just water

• leftover sausage skillet supper
• up to 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar, or local honey, optional
  

• fresh lemon, optional

Cut the radish leaves off and chop them up.  Give ’em a quick cold bath and drain them.  Quarter, halve, or sixth up the radishes, depending on their size.  Heat up your fat of choice in a large (12″) hot skillet.  Toss in the radishes and saute til browned.  If you’ve never browned brassicas before, prepare to smell the irresistible magic of the Maillard reaction.  Once your radishes are well-colored, toss in the leaves and continue to stir and cook.  The leaves will brown a bit, too.  Add the apple and herbs, give the mixture a few stirs, then add salt and a little liquid.  Cover the pan, lower the heat and cook until the radishes are tender.  Stir in the leftovers and sweetener if desired, and heat through.  Correct the seasoning (salt & pepper) and sparkle it with a little lemon juice.  If you forget about the lemon (did I do that?), it’ll be fine.

Serve with rice (there’s always a pot of cooked Lowell Farms organic jasmine rice in our fridge) or buttered noodles, or throw in a diced potato with the radishes.  Get to eatin’!