Quickaccia—The Bread of Redemption July 5, 2010

Everybody makes mistakes.  We learn this the hard way, as we commit our own follies, and we may suffer this lesson the even harder way when someone else blunders.  But wise new-agers and seasoned old-timers alike assure us that life isn’t what happens to us, it’s what we do with it.  So we not only learn from our bungling and our disappointments, but we grow and improve, when we open up to take advantage of new insights and explore new paths.  Often life’s missteps serve to remind us what is important, what we need and what we love.

slice o' life

That’s enough preambling for one post.  What’s this lapsed loaf about?  Recently I prepared a round of my Irish Style Brown Bread and noticed as I mixed the batter-y dough that it didn’t seem quite right.  Even as I poured (rather than plopped) the mixture into the pan, I knew I had erred.  But I forged ahead, placing the loose mass into the oven, hoping something edible would emerge.  I rechecked my recipe and realized I had left out the whole wheat pastry flour.  Weighing in at more than one-third of the flour called for, surely this omission spelled mealtime failure!  To my surprise and my family’s delight, the bread was delicious, if slightly imperfect, and then of course the light bulb lit up—a quick focaccia!

Little local cherry tomatoes, abundant and sweet, top this easy round with pop and zing.  This season we’ve been enjoying Sungolds from Hairston Creek Farm, Finca Pura Vida and Flint Rock Hill at the SFC farmers market at Sunset Valley.  Local red onions, local cheese and backyard herbs flavor your flatbread in a flash.

So turn that trip-up around and get back on track with this easy round of manna.

life in the round

QUICKACCIA makes one 9″ loaf

• 182 grams (1½ cups) organic all-purpose flour.  Whole Foods 365 brand in the 5-pound bag is usually the best value.
  
• 3 5/8 (1 cup minus 1½ Tablespoons) ounces Richardson Farms whole wheat flour (available at their Barton Creek farmers market location) or organic whole wheat flour.
• 1½ teaspoons cream of tartar, sieved
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda, sieved
• 1 teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.
• 1½ Tablespoons organic sugar.  Buy this in bulk or look for Central Market’s brand in the 2-pound bag.
  
• 2 Tablespoons organic butter, softened.  Organic Valley is my favorite all-purpose butter.  If you didn’t stock up when Natural Grocers offered their near-clearance-priced sale, click for a coupon.
  
• 1½ cups organic or local buttermilk or yogurt.  I make my own yogurt from local goat milk.  Click to see how.  Swede Farm Dairy is back from babymaking (SFC market at Sunset Valley).  Wateroak Farms is taking a market break but will still be available at Wheatsville Co-op and Whole Foods.
• shredded local or organic cheese of your choice.  For local queso check out Full Quiver Farms at the Barton Creek Farmers Market or  Brazos Valley Cheese Co. at the Austin and Sunset Valley Farmers Markets.
• local cherry tomatoes, halved if round and halved or quartered if oblong.
  
• local red onion, sliced thin.  We’ve been buying these up from Jackie at Flint Rock Hill (Sunset Valley) for $1.25 a pound.  She’s got potatoes—red or brown—for the same price, too.
  
• fresh backyard herbs, chopped.  Oregano pairs perfectly.  Sage and rosemary remind us of fall and work well also.
• coarse salt, preferably flaky—we love Murray River Pink.  Check out the bulk salts at either Central Market or Whole Foods and find your favorite!
• local or organic olive oil.  Check out Texas Olive Ranch for the Lone Star State lube.  I like Central Market’s value-priced organic brand for cooking.
  

Preheat the oven to 400°.  If you bake your loaf in a handleless pan, you can use the toaster oven.  A heavy 9″ round pan works best and cast iron is ideal.  Lube the pan with the olive oil and sprinkle the bottom with wheat bran or cornmeal.  I sift the bran out of Richardson Farms flour for certain recipes and have amassed a stash in the freezer.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours through the sugar) or just dump them into the food processor and let ‘er rip.  Add the butter and process to blend or rub the fat in with your fingertips.  Pour the flour mixture back into a bowl and add the buttermilk or yogurt.  Stir quickly with a fork to evenly moisten the dough, then use a flexible dough scraper to fold the dough over itself just a few times to bring it all together and develop a bit of structure.  Using the scraper, place the dough mound in the pan.  Spread and flatten the dough with a small offset spatula, or use the back of a spoon.

Toss the onions and herbs with some olive oil.  Top the dough with cheese, tomatoes and the onion mixture.  Sprinkle with the coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper, plus red pepper flakes if the kids are out on a sleepover (lucky you!).  Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes, until well browned.

Loosen the sides of the quickaccia with a metal spatula or butter knife before turning the bread out of the pan.  Re-invert onto a cooling rack and let cool a few minutes so y’all don’t go scalding your tongues!

Enjoy this bread, the fruit of my flub.  Be happy and carry on!

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.

Do the Math. Hit it! Houston May 27, 2010

butter up!

It’s simple arithmetic.  Not Going To The Y plus Not Writing equals More Time For Cleaning.  When a second batch of yogurt turned out curdly and separated, I knew the yogurt maker needed a scrub, so I gave in and hit the housework.  I just can’t do it all, unfortunately, and with our recent road trip to H-town rounding out a whirlwind spring season, the house (and my figure) reveal embarrassing signs of neglect.

The next time you find yourself in Baghdad of the Bayou (I just had to throw that one in ), check out chef Monica Pope’s T’afia restaurant for Czech-inflected Clutch City cuisine, locally flavored with the bounty of the Third Coast.  Joined by another mom and gradeschooler, we enjoyed kind service, tasty food (loved the chorizo-stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates!) and a noisy atmosphere impervious to energetic kids.  On a rare night of imbibing, Austin Frugal Foodie gratefully knocked back a flight of five Texas wines to accompany the five-course local tasting menu.  Our party partook of silky Swiss chard, heavenly cream-drizzled grits, fat shrimp, great bowtie mac-n-cheese, balsamic caramel beef(!) and more.  On Saturday mornings, T’afia hosts a farmers market that sounds incredible.  We might pencil that in for our next trip to Space City.  By the way, Motel 6 on the Katy Freeway furnishes THE most comfortable mattress I’ve ever slept on!  (I like ’em firm.)

If you’re hauling your kids to the Energy Capital of the World, be sure to visit the amazing Children’s Museum of Houston.  Our frugal friend, Austinfrugalmom, recently purchased a Premier Membership from the Austin Children’s Museum, and the reciprocity program allowed free entry into the Houston location for all of us.  Great savings for itinerant summer-breakers!  Check it out before you hit the road with young ‘uns.

Back to that “yogurt”.  I can’t bear to throw away honest local goat milk (from Wateroak Farms), even if I did screw up the preparation.  Well-whisked, the fine-lumped fluid still works as a buttermilk substitute for most recipes.  Like this here easy, easy quick bread fortified with Richardson Farms freshly ground whole wheat flour.  Crunchety-crusted and sweetened just enough to highlight the fresh wheat, this craggy loaf craves the caress of rich and lightly salted Organic Valley Pasture butter.  Accompany this bread with Dai Due‘s meaty hot boudin and you’ve got lunch—don’t forget the Texas peaches for dessert!

IRISH-STYLE BROWN BREAD makes one 8″ or 9″ round loaf

• 182 grams (1½ cups) organic all-purpose flour.  Whole Foods 365 brand in the 5-pound bag is usually the best value.
  
• 3 3/8 ounces (1 cup) organic whole wheat pastry flour.  Look for this in bulk departments or try Arrowhead Mills or Bob’s Red Mill.
  
• 6 ounces (1½ cups) Richardson Farms whole wheat flour (available at their Barton Creek farmers market location) or organic whole wheat flour.
• 1½ teaspoons cream of tartar, sieved
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda, sieved
• 1½ teaspoons salt.  I use Real Salt.
• 3 Tablespoons organic sugar.  Buy this in bulk or look for Central Market’s brand in the 2-pound bag.
  
• 2 Tablespoons organic butter, softened, plus 1 Tablespoon melted.  Organic Valley is my favorite all-purpose butter.  If you didn’t stock up when Natural Grocers offered their near-clearance-priced sale, click for a coupon.
  
• 1½ cups organic or local buttermilk or yogurt.  I make my own yogurt from local goat milk and I usually do a better a job than the last two batches.  Click to see how.  Swede Farm Dairy is back from babymaking (SFC market at Sunset Valley).  Wateroak is taking a market break but will still be available at Wheatsville Co-op and Whole Foods.

Preheat the oven to 400°.  If you bake your loaf in a handleless pan, you can use the toaster oven.  A heavy 8″ or 9″ round pan works best and cast iron is ideal.  Lube the pan how you please and sprinkle the bottom with wheat bran or cornmeal.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours through the sugar) or just dump them into the food processor and let ‘er rip.  Add the butter and process to blend or rub the fat in with your fingertips.  I recommend the machine if small children are about.  They have a way of knowing just when to soil the carpet or bust their lip and you might not want to get caught butterfingered at that moment.

Pour the flour mixture back into your bowl and add the buttermilk or yogurt.  Stir quickly with a fork to evenly moisten the dough, then use a flexible dough scraper to fold the dough over itself just a few times to bring it all together and develop a bit of structure.  Using the scraper, place the dough mound in the pan.  Slash a large “X” in the top of the loaf with a sharp knife before placing the pan in the oven.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until browned and the center of the loaf tests done when probed with a long bamboo skewer.

Carefully remove the loaf from the pan, brush it with the melted butter and let it cool for at least 30 minutes.  Serve warm or let cool completely.  This loaf tastes best the day of baking.  Chunk, crumble or slice leftovers to freeze for stuffing, bread crumbs or toast.

Welcome home!

Can’t Beat Beet Greens May 11, 2010

good greens: good and green!

Local beets be ’bout gone, but big ruby beauties beckoned this past Saturday, all coyly coiffed with scarlet-striped greens atop scarlet stalks.  Who would dream of throwing away those leafy lagniappes?  I save the edible greens from most of my produce:  all the root veggies plus kohlrabi, and leek tops go straight into the freezer to await the stockpot.  Carrot tops I utilize the least, but I try to get to them as well.

Easy for creamin’, beet greens quickly cook up tenderly toothsome without disintegrating.  For my last batch I  wilted the rinsed leaves in hot olive oil (Central Market’s organic brand offers a great value or try Texas Olive Ranch for local), added a splash of organic cream (Organic Valley’s my top choice) and a small chunk of organic cream cheese (CM’s own brand is usually cheapest).  Seasoned with a dash of garam masala and salt to taste, these greens didn’t even need a squeeze of fresh lemon for brightening at the table, but it’s up to you!

Cornporked—a Texas Casserole May 10, 2010

this was one (c)ornery subject!

My long lost relatives from Wisconsin came down for the weekend, bringing with them a welcome, if blustery, dip in temperature.  We met at the SFC farmers market in Sunset Valley, affording me the opportunity to show off not only the kindergartner’s soccer game across the street, but Austin’s own Dai Due.  Naturally they ordered the brats!  The unexpected chill called for a steaming cup of gumbo, comforting and thick with local meats and shrimp.  A hearty way to warm up for a Saturday of reconnecting, and enjoying and entertaining children.  This week’s charcuterie offerings from Dai Due included salt pork and tasso (fashioned from local Richardson Farms pork), so I stocked up (both keep fine in the freezer), armed to enrich my flexitarian diet.

Tomorrow’s the last day of HEB’s sale on Texas-grown corn at 4 for $1, and the days of comfortably heating up the big oven are becoming a memory.  So grab yourself a couple bucks of ears and pud(ding) ’em together with that salt pork.  Add local cheese and eggs, backyard herbs and organic creams and you’ve got an easy side dish that you might even make a meal out of.  We did!

CORN PUDDING serves plenty

• 6 cups local corn kernels, from about 8 medium ears of corn.
  
• 6 local eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup organic cream.  I like Organic Valley.  Click for a coupon.
  
• ½ cup organic sour cream. Farmers’ Creamery brand of luxurious slow-cultured cultured cream, crafted without thickeners or stabilizers, is available at Natural Grocers uptown.
  
• 6 ounces local cheddar (1½ cups shredded).  I love Full Quiver Farms extra sharp version.  Look for their booths at Barton Creek and Austin Farmers Markets.
• 7 slices Dai Due salt pork, rendered.  I slice and fry the whole chunk ahead of time and refrigerate whatever we don’t eat or use right then.  Remember to save that precious grease!  Fry your eggs or saute your bean base in it and feast like royalty.
  
• 1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar.  I buy this in bulk and bring in my own (large) container.  The staff tares the weight.
  
• scant teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.  Whole Foods sells this in bulk for the best deal.
  
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika.  For the lowest prices, I buy the majority of my spices in bulk, usually at Central Market.
  
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon garam masala.  Click for a recipe.
  
• 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh backyard herbs.  Basil, chives and thyme combine well.
  

Preheat your oven to 350°.  Butter up a 2-quart casserole dish.  Set it inside a roasting or cake pan (at least 9″ X 13″) to configure a bain-marie (water bath).  Start heating up water, most coolly accomplished in your microwave.  I use a 1-quart Pyrex glass measuring cup.  A couple or three of those should give you enough very hot water to come halfway up the sides of your casserole.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the corn and return to a boil.  Cook the kernels for 1 minute and drain well.  Process about 3½ cups of the corn in your food processor to yield a rough puree.  Combine the puree with the whole corn kernels and the remaining ingredients.  Turn the mixture into the casserole dish.

Place your bain-marie setup on a middle rack in the oven and pour the heated water into the roasting pan.  Bake for 45 minutes or so, until the pudding is set and browned.  You can test it for doneness with a bamboo skewer to be sure.

Carefully remove the casserole from the water bath and place it on a cooling rack.  Let cool and set for 10 minutes before serving.

Tastes great at room temperature too!

Wing-it Bicuits May 4, 2010

Why yes, I would like some biscuit with my butter!

OK, so I was VERY hungry and late on my lunch this afternoon, having flowered and delivered a cake for the Teachers Appreciation lunch at my kindergartner’s school.  (My carrot cake really “rose” to the occasion—see photos.)  But biscuits never fail me—butter and starch, spread with more butter and maybe even some honey?  Bring it on, honey!

Richardson Farms locally grown whole wheat flour (available at their Barton Creek location) shines its fresh and sweetly wheaty glow onto every recipe it touches.  These super easy, quick as a flash, homey drop-style biscuits are no exception.  With a light and fluffy texture (not at all heavy, despite their whole grain content), these fast little breads fill you up like royalty when spread with great butter and local honey or your favorite fruit preserves.  Let ’em cool down and you can even shortcake ’em!  Plenty of local strawberries teasing at our farmers markets lately.  And dewberries!  We’ve been keeping an eye on our patch in the woods and so far have collected two—berries that is.  But our pint from Naegelin Farms (SFC market at Sunset Valley) this past Saturday helped put the color in our kids faces, literally!

WING-IT BISCUITS makes 8 biscuits

• 140 grams organic all-purpose flour
• 100 grams organic or local (Richardson Farms) whole wheat flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder, sieved.  I prefer Rumford, aluminum-free and non-GMO.
  
• ½ Tablespoon organic sugar.  Widely available in bulk departments around town.
  
• generous ½ teaspoon baking soda, sieved.
  
• scant teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.
  
• 1 cup yogurt.  I make my own from local goat milk.  Check out how.  The folks at Swede Farm Dairy just had a baby and Wateroak Farms will be taking a two-month break.  I’ll let you know how our options are faring.
  
• 1 stick organic butter, cut into bits and well-chilled.  Organic Valley is my favorite.  Natural Grocers has OV butter on special for only $3.99 a pound through May 15.  Closer to my hood, Sprouts counters with a price of $4.49, through May 5.
  

Preheat your toaster oven to 425°.  You can use your full-size oven, of course, but it’s May and warm here already.  I use the toaster oven whenever I can in hot weather as it heats up the kitchen less.  Plus it uses less energy than the big oven.  Have a 9″ round cake pan handy and get out your ¼-cup scoop.

Combine the dry ingredients (flours through the salt) in the bowl of a food processor.  Run the machine to thoroughly mix them.  Add the butter and process for a few seconds to cut it in.  Turn the flour mixture out into a bowl and pour on the yogurt.  Stir together quickly to moisten all the flour.

Using your scoop, preferably spring-loaded, scoop out 8 rounds and place them in a 9″ pan.  You’ll have seven mounds around the perimeter and one scoop in the middle.  Bake at 425° for about 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 400° and bake for 5 to 10 minutes more, until biscuits are browned and cooked through.

Place pan on a cooling rack for a few minutes before carefully loosening biscuits from pan.

Fill your belly!

Nasi Goreng-ey…Fry that Rice! May 2, 2010

go nasi goreng!

Although I try to approach cooking and eating, and life in general, from an eco-friendly angle, thrift has always informed my style.  To that end, this blog aims to help folks find, afford and enjoy sustainable foods, i.e. local and/or organic.  In this society, where a truly bewildering variety of choices both tempts and confounds eaters, lucky cooks can find themselves overwhelmed by options.  Our full cups may runneth over us, laden with delicious novelties from far-flung cuisines.   Those less fortunate, the food-insecure, must make do with what they have, when they’re lucky enough to find something in their cupboards.

On this happy Sunday morning the toddler let me sleep in about an hour and a half later than usual.  I feel nearly human!  Coming into the kitchen area, I noticed that our pot of rice, just cooked last night, had been left out.  Although the house still isn’t warm at night, it’s definitely not cold.  So I put the pot into the fridge, determined to re-cook this rice soon.  Nasi goreng-style fried rice coming up!

Inspired by last week’s Capital Area Food Bank Hunger Awareness challenge, I’ve been trying, even more than usual, to make use of odds and ends stashed away, maximizing my thrift.  Nearly forgotten condiments, combined with cheap seasonal produce, the incredible, affordable egg, and leftover meats or inexpensive soy foods, resurrect abandoned rice.  Lubing the lot with a lagniappe of sustainable fats utilizes even more precious foodstuffs that might some folks just discard.

Here’s this morning’s fried rice, Indonesian-inflected and fortified with goods on hand.  Just a general guideline for creating your own tasty and budget-conscious quick meal.

NASI GORENG-EY

• rice, cooked and chilled, I love Lowell Farms Texas-grown organic jasmine rice.  Don’t use fresh-cooked rice.
• organic coconut oil, peanut oil, or local pork fat (Dai Due‘s salt pork yields a wonderfully savory grease, compatible with many cuisines.  Don’t throw this rendered gold away!)
• organic tempeh (or tofu), cubed and tossed with 1/8 tsp. ground star anise, 1/8 tsp. ground roasted Szechuan peppercorns, ¼ tsp. ground turmeric and some kosher salt.  Or you can use up leftover cooked meats such as lightly seasoned chicken, pork or duck (lucky you if you’ve got duck!), cut or shredded into bite-sized pieces.
• several local eggs, widely available at our farmers markets or maybe your own backyard, beaten thoroughly with a little salt.
  
• minced scallions or spring onion greens.  Gorgeous alliums galore at our markets and Central Market is selling Texas 1015 spring onions for $1.69 per bunched trio.
  
• a couple Tablespoons kecap manis, which I never keep in my cupboard, or dark soy sauce mixed with about ½ Tblsp. palm sugar (I very rarely buy this) or turbinado sugar (now that I always have!) and a bit of ground star anise.  Whatever you use, mix in about ½ tsp. turmeric, 1 tsp. ground coriander and a pinch of salt, too.  To keep this dish kid friendly, I add 1 tsp. paprika.  You can use spicy peppers, dried or fresh, depending on season, to your own tolerance.
  
• about a Tablespoon minced fresh ginger root.  If you’ve been following this blog for long you know that I almost never peel fresh ginger.  Neither did Barbara Tropp when she cooked at home.
• minced garlic.  Lots of local garlic available again!  Check out Tecolote Farms at the Sunset Valley location.
  
• Small dab of shrimp sauce or paste.  I use Lee Kum Kee shrimp sauce, readily available at my work, and it flavors fine for my purposes, although it’s not the same as the more solid shrimp paste of Thai and Indonesian cookery.  I bought the little jar and it will probably last my lifetime.  Use what you have—if your cooking encompasses Southeast Asian specialties,  not only should you already have all the ingredients necessary for nasi goreng, you don’t need my guidance.  Carry on!
• 1 Texas 1015 onion, either from your spring onion bundle or a mature specimen (on sale for $1.29 a pound through Tuesday at CM), halved pole to pole, each half bisected at the equator and sliced medium-thin
• ¼ of a medium-sized head of Texas-grown cabbage (not available much longer this season), halved and sliced thin.  In another season, use any stir fry-suitable local veggie, and/or Austin-grown (or homegrown!) mung bean sprouts.
  

If using tempeh or tofu, brown it up in your fat of choice in a large well-seasoned or nonstick skillet.  Place the browned chunks on a plate and set them aside.  If using leftover meat, toss it with the tempeh seasonings and add it in later.  In the same pan, saute your minced scallion greens in a little more fat before adding your eggs.  Give the eggs a few stirs as they cook before letting them set into a kind of pancake.  I like to put the lid on the pan and turn the heat off so the eggs can finish cooking.  Flip the pancake to brown the other side if desired, then turn the eggs out onto a plate and set aside.

Combine the minced garlic and shrimp paste/sauce.  Heat up some more fat and sizzle your ginger.  Add the garlic mixture and stir it around to release the fragrance before quickly adding the onion slices.  If you’re using spicy chiles, fresh or dried, add them as well.  When the onions are ’bout done to your liking, add the tempeh or tofu chunks (or cooked meat) and stir the mess around.  Dump in the rice and continue to fry, breaking up the clumps.  Add the kecap manis or soy sauce mixture and stir fry until everything is well-coated with sauce.  Turn mixture out onto a large platter.

Using a large skillet again (I prefer not to use nonstick for this step), heat the pan up very hot on HIGH.  Add a little cooking fat (organic peanut oil is great here) quickly swirl to coat the cooking surface and briskly stir fry the cabbage.  Add a pinch each of turbinado sugar, kosher salt and ground roasted Szechuan peppercorns while you’re cooking.  Turn the cabbage out onto the fried rice mixture.

Slice the egg pancake into bite-sized strips to top off the nasi goreng.  Let your diners add soy sauce, salt, sugar, a little lemon juice and Asian-style chile sauce to taste to their own portions.

Be Fruitful and Popsicle April 18, 2010

why yes, I did run out of time to put the sticks in

Spying an incredible deal at the SFC Farmers Market at Sunset Valley this past Saturday,  I snatched up eight baskets of locally-grown, chemical -free strawberries for only $2 a pint from Flint Rock Hill.  These fraises were priced to move and had to be processed very soon.  I remembered that big bag of organic blueberries from Costco still hogging up freezer space (I don’t think my cooking/eating style suits warehouse shopping).  And on a couple of recent warm-day walks home from school with the kindergartner, I recalled our refreshing Cantaloupe Popsicles that we enjoyed all season long last year, rewards for the brutal 20 minute Death Valley trek home.  So, popsicles it be!

I loosely followed my cantaloupe popsicle recipe, without the benefit of lemons or limes, replacing the Amaretto with Frangelico, adding Texas orange zest and playing around with varying proportions of strawberries to blueberries.  Local honey is a must!

We’re well stocked with frozen novelties for now.  Even on a cool spring day like today, a cold fruity treat revives the family.

Whole Foods Recipe: Cabbage and Cheddar Gratin

cabbage casserole

Last night I baked up a recipe from the Whole Foods website for a cabbage and cheddar gratin.  Using Texas-grown cabbage (only 69¢ a pound at Central Market), Full Quiver Farm’s medium-sharp cheddar, Arrowhead Mills organic yellow cornmeal and Central Market organic Dijon mustard ($2.09 for the 9-ounce jar), plus a dash (about 1/3 teaspoon, actually) of homemade garam masala, I baked up this easy, hearty and tasty vegetarian dish.  Nearly vegetarian in my kitchen, anyways.  I used my homemade turkey broth instead of the vegetable broth called for.

For the herbs I snipped backyard sage, rosemary and thyme and just for funsies threw in a minced large basil leaf—’cause we’re growin’!  A scant teaspoon of salt (Real Salt) seasoned the lot just right.

We enjoyed this mustardy, filling main course and the preparation was simple.  I forgot to take a photo of the whole completed dish (sorry!) but you can get a gander on the link.  I did use a bigger baking pan than the recipe suggested.  I don’t know how they fit all that into an 8″ square dish.  I buttered up my 2.5-quart Le Creuset buffet casserole, over 10″ wide, and baked the gratin in the toaster oven.  For the initial baking, I put the lid on it, instead of using foil.  I raised the oven temperature to 400° for the last 15 uncovered minutes to promote browning.

Texas cabbage won’t be around much longer.  So get your hands on a head—it’s cheap!—and enjoy a cool afternoon of carefree baking.  You’ll be glad you did at dinnertime.

Potato Bake April 8, 2010

spinach 'n' taters

come 'n' git it casserole

If you didn’t get a chance to grab a bag of organic russets on sale recently at Newflower Market, Texas farmers have granted you a reprieve.  You can find Texas-grown new red potatoes right now at Central Market for $1.99 a pound.  No small potatoes for small potatoes, but sometimes you gotta have your spud fix.  Either way, boil up some ‘taters for this comforting casserole and store any extra boiled potatoes in the fridge for quick breakfasts.

This dish used up my leftover cottage cheese (from Mackin’ Cheese) and incorporates fresh Texas cool weather produce, still available for a little while longer.  Serve as is or gild with your favorite salsa or a tangy tamarind chutney.

INDIAN SEASONED SPINACH AND POTATO BAKE serves several

• 4 medium-sized cooked potatoes, or 9-10 new potatoes.  I boil up a few and keep ’em in the fridge for quick starching.
• 1 good-sized Texas leek, trimmed, washed, quartered and sliced thin
• 1 (or more) good-sized local green garlic bulb, or 1 (or more) clove  of organic or local garlic, minced
• ¼ teaspoon paprika, smoked is good
• 1½ teaspoons ground coriander
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala.  You can use your favorite recipe, or try this basic blend.  Or you can buy it ready made in bulk spice departments.
• 4 Tablespoons plus ½ Tablespoon ghee or organic butter (click for a coupon on Organic Valley), plus more for greasing you baking dish.  Click for my instructions on making your own ghee.
  
• 1/8 to ¼ teaspoon asafetida,  optional but yummy.
  
• 1 10-ounce bag of Cora Lamar’s triple-washed Texas-grown spinach (ready to cook) or other local spinach, trimmed and cleaned.
• ½ teaspoon plus ¾ teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.  Plus some kosher salt for the potatoes—I like Diamond Crystal.
• 1 cup organic or local cottage cheese.  I used Organic Valley.  Full Quiver Farm sometimes makes cottage cheese.  Ask at their booth the next time you’re shopping Austin Farmers Market or Barton Creek Farmers Market.
  
• 1 local egg
• a few sprigs of local cilantro

Combine the ground spices, paprika through the garam masala, and stir in 3 Tablespoons water.  Heat up a large saute pan with the 4 Tbls. ghee or butter.  Add the asafetida and give it a quick stir before stirring in the spice mixture.  Cook and stir over medium-high heat for a minute or two, until the spices begin to look dryish and separate from the butterfat.  Stir in the leeks to get them well covered with the spices and add about 3 Tablespoons more water.  Saute, stirring and adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent scorching, until the leeks have softened.  Stir in the garlic to release its fragrance.

Break each potato into two halves (unless they’re small) and smash each spud into coarse chunks with the heel of your hand.  Add the ‘taters to the cooking pan as you go.  Stir the mixture well to get all the potatoes covered with the seasonings, sprinkle them with a good pinch of kosher salt and let them sit and brown for a couple minutes.  Stir and salt again and let brown some more. Turn the potato mixture into a bowl.

Heat up the ½ Tablespoon ghee or butter in the same pan over high heat and wilt the spinach.  Place spinach on a plate to cool for a minute before chopping it up and pressing most of the liquid out.  You don’t have to squeeze it totally dry.  Mix the spinach into the potatoes.

Meanwhile, combine the cottage cheese, egg, ¾ teaspoon salt and cilantro in a small food processor bowl and process until smooth.   Stir the cottage cheese into the potato mixture.  Scrape into a large buttered casserole dish (I used my 3½ quart Le Creuset “buffet casserole”) and bake at 400° for about 20 minutes, until piping hot and steaming in the middle when stabbed with a butter knife.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt to serve this with some juicy grilled local sausages, such as Dai Due‘s fat and juicy spicy wild boar sausage.