Playing with Food

Wilson Farm, Lexington, MA

2012-01-13T13:15:00.001-05:00

I love markets, all kinds of markets. Farmers' Markets, ethnic food markets and I'll even include regular supermarkets. It's not unusual for my husband and me to drive hours to go check out a new food store. It's one of the things we like to do together. He enjoys driving and I like to knit and take in the view along the way. Last Sunday, Wilson Farm was our destination.

It's located in Lexington, MA, they've been around since 1884 and are well known for their fresh fruits and vegetables that are mostly grown by them, on 500 acres, and the surrounding farms. Also well known is their 8,500 square foot barn built with recycled lumber that houses the market. More about the barn here.

Wilson Farm barn was built by Bensonwood Homes in 1996.

While my husband admired the trusses and beams above,
I was mesmerized by mountains of fresh fruits and vegetables

Leeks, beets and fennel

All kinds of greens

Star fruit, oranges and grapefruit

Mangoes and pomegranate

Persimmons and pineapple

We came home with these Fuyu persimmons. They're seedless, crispy and sweet.

Nature's candy, just peel and pop in your mouth.

The Fuyu ripens in November through January, enjoy them while they last!

Where is your favorite food market? We're always looking for a destination :)

Lao Food: Tum Maak Houng or Green Papaya Salad

2012-01-09T13:10:00.002-05:00

Tum Maak Houng has it's origin in Laos and the Isaan part of Thailand. It is one of the most favorite dishes of Laos, beloved by all it's people and those who live abroad will go to great lengths to find the green, unripe papaya. Eaten throughout the day, as part of a meal or anytime snacking, it is adored by young and old. Whether you enjoy spicy hot food or not, there's a tum maak houng for you.

Tum maak houng is pounded in a mortar and pestle to meld all its flavors.

It is impossible to nail this down to a single recipe or to describe the flavors of Green Papaya Salad. Everyone has their own preferences. Even in my own family, we argue about whether it is too spicy, too sweet, not salty enough or maybe it needs a touch of lime. The flavors we're after are hot, salty, sour and sweet, in that order. That being said, my Dad would turn his nose up at any tum maak houng that contained even one grain of sugar. He liked it hot and salty with chunks of padek and just a touch of lime juice. My sister Thi makes it super hot, and on the sweet side with padek and tamarind paste. My sister Li adds tamarind paste but no padek. She uses nam pa or fish sauce instead, making it not as sweet nor as hot. My version is closer to Li's.

How hot is hot? Thi uses a handful of hot chili peppers! Really, she does. Her tum maak houng is very hot, salty, sour and sweet, all in perfect balance. Plenty of sticky rice helps tame the heat for those less initiated. As much as I enjoy those strong assertive flavors, when I make it for friends, I tone it way down, to only one or two hot peppers. Most of them can't handle even that much heat. But when I make it for myself and my husband, I'll add as many as five, hot enough to be respectable but not too hot that I can't eat it with abandon. The debate over who makes the best tum maak houng will never end but one thing is certain, we can't live without it. It's a national addiction.

Green papaya salad is simplicity itself needing only a handful of ingredients. Here's how I make it, starting with an unripe papaya...

Peel the papaya...

...shred the papaya. The shredding tool is quite handy, look for it at Asian markets, or you can use the coarse side of a box grater. You're looking for long thin strands.

In a mortar and pestle, put 2 or 3 hot chilies, 1 garlic clove and a generous pinch of salt.

Pound to coarsely mash the chilies and garlic.

Add 3 to 4 cups shredded papaya, 1 shredded carrot, 1 to 1 1/2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, 3 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 teaspoon shrimp paste, 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar and juice of half to a whole lime. Pound to bruise and soften the papaya, thoroughly mix everything together and taste. Adjust the seasoning to your own perfect balance of hot, salty, sour and sweet. And wake up your taste buds!

Tum maak houng with kiep moo and sticky rice, Lao food at its best!

More Lao food:

Lao food blogs I follow:

Sao Darly Darly adores tum maak houng, she can hardly go a day without it.
Laocook Chef Vienne elevates Lao food to haute cuisine.

Easy 7-Layer Salad

2011-11-16T08:47:00.002-05:00

It seems as though there's quite a selection of 7-layer Salad recipes out there and I'm sure every family must have their own version. This one came from my friend Maggie's mom, or at least that's how I remember it, when I first started making it at every Thanksgiving more than twenty years ago. It's an easy, do-ahead and take-along salad that's one of our family's favorite, even among those who don't love salads or vegetables, you know who you are ;)

Easy, do-ahead, take-along 7-layer Salad

You can hardly call this a recipe and it's impossible to nail down the quantities. This is just a guideline, the salad is totally flexible, use less or more of any ingredient to suit your own taste. Here are the seven layers:

1 head iceberg lettuce
1 TBS mayonnaise
1 tsp sugar
1 box frozen tiny peas
1/4 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 red onion, thinly sliced into rings
1/2 lb Swiss cheese sliced paper thin

Layer the salad in the order given, overlapping the lettuce slightly. Smear 1/3 of the mayo over the lettuce, it won't cover the lettuce completely, just a small smear here and there. Sprinkle with 1/3 of sugar.

Scatter 1/3 of frozen peas all over, then 1/3 of the bacon, followed by a thin layer of onions. Then a layer of cheese.

Repeat two more times, ending with the cheese. Press down on the layers if they threaten to overflow. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until ready to serve, for up to four hours at room temperature, longer in the fridge. Cut into squares and serve. Don't let the simple ingredients fool you, this is deliciously light and addictive. Give it a try!

7-layer Salad gets better as it sits.

Here are links to some of our family's favorite Thanksgiving dishes:

Here are other folks' 7-layer Salad:

Homemade Pork Rind - "Kiep Moo"

2011-11-09T10:02:00.001-05:00

My share of pork from Walpole Valley Farms included several sheets of pork skin with an inch of fat on them. I knew right away that I would make Kiep Moo with it. Kiep Moo is the Lao version of pork rind. Green Papaya Salad and Kiep Moo is my favorite Lao food combination. Rich, crunchy pork skin is the perfect foil for the spicy, salty, sweet and sour Tum Maak Houng, the Lao name for Green Papaya Salad.

Kiep Moo (Homemade Pork Rind)

Though it's been many years since I've indulged in Kiep Moo, I wanted to make it. My mother gave me long instructions, involving several hours boiling, several hours drying and then frying the pork. That seemed like a lot of work to indulge my guilty pleasure. After digging around for recipes, I decided to follow Paula Deen's method that is to simply put the pork skin with a sprinkling of salt in a 325 F degree oven for about three hours, until "nice and crispy."

I cut skin and fat into bite size pieces and arrange them skin side down so as the fat renders out it will naturally fry the skin.

The fat melting away in the oven had to be drained off several times.

After almost four hours, these look ready but they still had a lot of fat attached to the skin. Next time I would remove most of the fat and leave only a very thin layer.

Drain, let cool and dry completely. Scrape off all the fat, sprinkle with salt and serve only the crispy skin, they're especially addictive as cocktail nibbles.

Kiep Moo and Tum Maak Houng, a match made in Lao heaven.

October Snow

2011-11-02T21:21:00.001-04:00

"Live Free or Die" is the motto of our state. Or is it "Live Freeze and Die" as some might mock. But, come on, snow in October is unusual, even for New Hampshire. I was skeptical when the Nor'easter was first predicted until the day before when it began to look like we really would need to button up for the winter. What if this same snow stuck around till spring? Fortunately this was not the case and, even as I write this, it is a sunny 50 F degrees and the snow has all but melted. But the day before the snow came, I frantically dug up, potted, picked and protected as many of my garden plants as possible.

I dug up this clump of Calendula to bring into the greenhouse. They'll add color to an otherwise gray winter.


I also dug up more than a life time supply of lemongrass. Here they are, demanding a sunny spot indoors.

10 lbs of kale and 5 lbs of collard greens were picked.

I can't say enough about these black turtles beans. Not only are they so buttery delicious, these heirloom beans are easy to grow from seed saved from year to year.


Fall planted beets, napa cabbage and cilantro will be protected with row cover to extend the growing season.

Our new lavender field is mulched with fall leaves for winter protection.


Calm before the storm. Look at all the leaves still on the trees.

Then there was snow. 10" of wet, branch breaking snow.

Too late! No time to clean out the garage, the car was left out in the snow.

Our young fruit trees weighed down by the wet snow.

Ben wanted no part of it

I think he's having fun :)

A bowl of Pho...

...is perfect after a day of playing in the snow.

Pho is not hard to make at home, here are some authentic recipes for you to try:

Pho (Vietnamese Beef and Rice Noodle Soup from Food Network.com
Vietnamese Pho from Nicole Routhier
Beef Pho Noodle Soup from Viet World Kitchen
Chicken Pho Noodle Soup from Viet World Kitchen

Roasted Salmon with Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime

2011-10-21T06:03:00.001-04:00

Colors on my morning walk.

Every fall as the leaves turn and the landscape is ablaze with orange, red and yellow I bring in my two potted kaffir lime trees and dig up the clumps of lemongrass that I grow as an annual. Both are tropical herbs not meant to withstand the New England north winds. The lime trees will spend the winter in a sunny window giving us fresh leaves for winter soups and stews

Kaffir Lime

but the lemongrass must be dug up and used, dried or frozen. Growing and harvesting lemongrass as an annual yields tender stalks not found in any store. They seem to get tougher the moment they're lifted from the ground.

Lemongrass

I'm always looking for new ways to use these herbs while they're still fresh and tender. For the most part I've use them in Thai and Lao dishes, but this time I wanted to try something different. I remembered a recipe for Rosemary Roasted Salmon, an old favorite from Epicurious, that is super easy, can be made ahead and is delicious. The recipe calls for rosemary and lemons but I replaced the rosemary with lemongrass, used limes instead of lemons and added kaffir lime leaves to the mix. The result was aromatic, light and tasty.

Roasted Salmon with Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime
Adapted from Epicurious Rosemary Roasted Salmon

3 - 4 stalks lemongrass
6 - 8 kaffir lime leaves, to cover the piece of salmon
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 2-pound center-cut salmon fillet with skin
3 - 4 large limes, thinly sliced
1/3 cup olive oil
Sea Salt and pepper

First layer lemongrass

Salmon on top of lemongrass

Kaffir lime leaves on top of salmon

A layer of thinly sliced limes seals everything in.

After 20 minutes in a 500F degree oven the salmon is moist and aromatic.

Preheat oven to 500°F. Cut lemongrass into 6" pieces or the width of your roasting pan, crush them well with the flat of your knife or a rolling pin, arrange in a single layer. Place salmon, skin side down, atop the lemongrass. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover salmon with crushed or torn lime leaves, followed by a layer of sliced onion. Arrange lime slices over the onion. Drizzle olive oil all over. Sprinkle lime slices with more salt. Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 2 hours.

Roast salmon, covered, until just cooked through, about 20 minutes. Transfer salmon to plates, add another squeeze of lime. Serve with roasted onions and lime slices. Makes 4 servings.

More recipes using lemongrass, kaffir lime and other fresh herbs:
Thai Curry Squash Soup

Slow Roasted Garlic with Rosemary

Rosemary Roasted Salmon
Deviled Eggs with Chives
Spring Roll Lettuce Wrap

Harvesting Grapes in New Hampshire

2011-10-10T13:12:00.002-04:00

Each October my Wayback friends (yes, we go way back) and I get together and volunteer for the grape harvest at Barnett Hill Vineyard in Walpole, NH. I'm just in awe of what it takes to run a vineyard...planting, trellising, pruning, tying, harvesting etc, not to mention the winemaking parts about crushing, tasting, bottling, aging and selling.

So about five years ago, when the call came seeking volunteers to help pick grapes, we didn't need much convincing and it has become our annual fall ritual.

Nylon netting over the grapes protect them from birds and wild turkeys.
Netting is removed just before we start picking.


Tools of the trade: 1. Five-gallon buckets turned upside down to sit on. 2. Small plastic garbage bins to collect rotten or diseased plant materials, no debris is left behind as this will encourage the spread of diseases. 3. Special grape harvesting knives

Volunteers set out to do the picking

Picking and chatting over the grape vines

Thirty one varieties of grapes are grown here but on this day we're picking La Crescent, a white varietal,
which will become a fruity dessert wine.

Then we have lunch of homemade soup, freshly baked bread and, of course, wine.
The spectacular views bring us back year after year.

Virginia Carter, front right, is the owner, with the Waybacks.

The shop and tasting room, worth a trip from anywhere.

What's Growing in the Garden: 9/23/2011

2011-09-23T08:05:00.002-04:00

The days maybe getting shorter and nights cooler but don't give up on the garden yet...

Heirloom Rattlesnake Pole Bean reaches for the sky and pumps
out beans all summer long. Great as snap beans or dry beans.
Save some seeds for planting next summer and you won't need to
buy seeds again.

Black Turtle Bean, an heirloom bush bean, drying
in semi shade

You too, can grow your own garlic, it's so easy, here's how.

Datura or Angels Trumpet is a hardy perennial,
and self sows wildly in my garden.

Lao eggplant is small, only 1" to 2" in diameter.
Mild in flavor, good in soups and stews.

Purple Blush eggplant is best grilled, thin skinned with not
a taste of bitterness, it's our summer staple.

Paper Lantern peppers are super hot, not for the faint of heart.


The squash patch is looking a bit tired but these Delicatas are perfect and ready to be picked for winter storage.

last of the season

Creating a bit of Provence in our backyard, we planted
the first batch of lavender. Eighty plants in three rows.
They're looking quite promising!

Previous garden posts you might like:
Around the Garden
What's Growing in the Garden: 4/28/2009
What's Growing in the Garden: 3/30/2009
Fresh Garlic Soup
My Garden in September

Just Peachy

2011-09-21T06:39:00.000-04:00

Puffy clouds, bright blue sky and crisp, clean air means fall is approaching our corner of southwestern New Hampshire. This is the time of year when the gatherer in me takes over and I can't stop! I'm in my squirrel mode picking, gathering, foraging, freezing, drying, canning, fermenting, cooking and eating. Phew, it's no wonder I fall asleep with the sun.

It's been a banner year for peaches at Alyson's Orchard, and a few weeks ago I came home with half a bushel of "seconds".

Who can resist these tree ripened beauties?

Calling these peaches "seconds" is misleading. I really couldn't see anything wrong with them other than they were perfectly ripe and had to be eaten or put up right away. That's how it is with fresh fruit, use them or lose them. Since losing them was not an option, we ate the very ripe ones first, out of hand. They were sweet, juicy and elbow dripping good. When we had our fill, I started cooking with them. I separated them into what had to be dealt with right away and what would keep for two or three more days.

First to be made every year is Peach Mango Topping. The recipe is from the Food Network, and I follow it exactly, making multiple batches of just the topping which I freeze. This is a cheesecake recipe but I don't make the cheesecake, just the topping. The cheesecake part comes later in winter when life slows to a halt.

Peach Mango Topping

Peach Mango Topping
courtesy of the Food Network

2 cups peeled, chopped fresh ripe peaches
1/2 cup mango juice
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Combine 1 cup peaches, mango juice, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture bubbles and thickens. Cool for 10 minutes, then add the remaining 1 cup peaches. Let cool, use or freeze.

We like it on waffles, pancake, ice cream, yogurt, pies and, of course, cheesecake. It's even great all by itself right out of the jar. I freeze it in one quart jars and when its cold and gray in the middle of January, it is sunshine in a jar.

Next I peel, slice and freeze. With peaches this ripe there's no need to blanch before peeling. The skin pulls right off. I freeze them in freezer bags, 4 cups per bag with a squeeze of lemon and a tablespoon of sugar. This is just the right amount for pie or crisp.

On the day that the peaches would not last a minute longer and I could not peel and slice one more, I turned to the liquor cabinet. I wrote about making fruit brandy here and still believe that this is the fastest way. In this case of too many ripe peaches, I quartered the peaches and put them in jars, skin, seed and all, then added vodka to cover. When I ran out of vodka, I turned to white rum, thinking what the heck, and I made one small pint of brandy. This time I didn't add any sugar. I find that, because fruits vary so much in sugar content, I prefer to add sugar to taste after decanting, in about three months. Sometimes no sugar is needed. Slightly sweet and fruity is how I like it. Lots of boozy, peachy drink this winter.

Peaches in freezer bags ready for the freezer and in jars steeped in alcohol

Lao Food: Padek

2011-04-04T08:48:00.001-04:00

Padek ready for fermentation

Padek is a very strong, pungent fermented fish sauce unique to Laos and parts of Thailand. It is indispensable in Lao cooking. My mother says you cannot make good Lao food without good padek and that the best padek is one you make yourself. For years I've rejected the notion that I had to make my own padek and stubbornly forged ahead with my own version of Lao food, full of short cuts using store bought padek and other sauces. Alas, my cooking is never as good as hers. My mother lives and makes padek in the south of France and when I go for a visit, I find myself looking forward to her Lao cooking as much as French wine and cheese.

My visit this year found my mother more frail as she approaches her ninth decade, but she continues to sing the praises of vintage padek and how easy it is to make. My niece, Dou, and I decided that we should humor our aging matriarch and yes, we told her, we will make padek.

Had I known how easy it would be, I would've done it years ago. Here is how to make authentic padek Lao.

4 lbs of fish, any fish that's inexpensive and available
1 lb of coarse sea salt, I used kosher salt
2 cups bran, preferably rice bran but any will do, I used wheat bran

The cheapest fish I could find was frozen smelt at $1.99 a pound. I had never eaten or cooked with smelt before. They looked like bait to me, which they are for bigger fish. The ones I found were sold whole, ungutted, with head and tail still attached, about 3 to 4 inches long.

I got my mother on the phone and asked her how to proceed. She said she wasn't familiar with smelt either but that it sounded like it would work, and besides, small fish are preferable for making padek anyway. I asked her, "Do I gut them?" "What a silly question," she said. "Fry up a couple, taste them and decide if they need it."

Pan fried smelt

So I pan fried a few of them, with a light coating of flour, salt and pepper. Wow, so good! Crunchy, buttery and delicate, similar to pan fried trout. I did some research and a whole new world of small, inexpensive fish opened up to me...herring, sardines, mackerel etc. Apparently these are all tasty delicacies that are, best of all, often under fished! No environmental conscience to appease here.

I decided not to gut them, but cut them in half, leaving the heads and tails on. I tossed them with the salt and bran, kneading and squeezing until they were well blended and the fish pieces firmed up. I put everything in a 2-gallon jar, topped it with two layers of plastic wrap, weighed it down with some well washed rocks and screwed the cover on.

It will sit in a cool dark corner for a year. The longer the better my mom says, who has barrels of different vintages from one to five years old.

When it's ready, it will smell strong and pungent but not fishy. The miracle happens when the right amount is used as an ingredient. The strong aroma dissipates leaving a sublime and subtle flavor that suggests the fifth taste, umami.

Freshly made padek After one month

Sticky Rice with Mango

2010-04-11T18:00:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, at an Asian market, I came across these perfectly ripened "champagne" mangoes, and their fragrance brought back memories of mango picking after a monsoon rain.

Down the street from my grandmother's house in Vientiane, next to what used to be the French library on Setthathirath Road, was a tall mango tree, with fruit much too high for us to pick standing on the ground. During monsoon season, the heat would be unbearable. But then the sky would darken, the wind would pick up and the rain would begin. The first big, fat drops brought relief from the heat. But then it would just pour. The village children waited, knowing the rain would become a steady drizzle that could last for days. When it did, we all ran to the mango tree where the ground was covered with mangoes brought down by the strong wind and rain. We gathered whole ones in the folds of our T-shirts for later, but the bruised and split fruits, the ones that were the ripest and the sweetest, we ate right there, sucking on the seeds and spitting out the skin, the juice running down our elbows.

Today the mangoes are bigger but not as sweet or juicy. Perhaps memory is sweeter than reality, but the fragrance of a ripe mango always puts me back underneath that mango tree.

I bought the mangoes from the Asian market and made Sticky Rice with Mango. It is my favorite "anytime" snack but often I'll serve it as dessert to my dinner guests. It's always a hit.

Sticky Rice with Mango
2 cups freshly cooked sticky rice
15 oz coconut milk
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
3-4 ripe mangoes

Pour coconut milk in a small sauce pan and reduce by 1/2, add sugar and salt. Give it a taste, it should be slightly sweet with a hint of saltiness. Remove from heat, add about 2 cups cooked rice and let it soak in all the coconut mixture, about 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature topped with peeled and sliced mangoes. Serves four.

Sticky Rice with Mango

Maple Sesame Noodles

2010-03-14T07:30:00.011-04:00

March is maple time in New England. The rolling hills are still covered in snow but the sun is strong and languishing sugar houses are coming alive with the first sap run. The drip, drip, dripping noise in my pails means spring has sprung.

Since I've been tapping and boiling my own sap, there has been no shortage of syrup in my kitchen. In fact, now that the new vintage is flowing, I'm constantly looking for new ways to use the maple syrup, especially last year's supply.

I use maple syrup in everything that calls for sugar or honey.
We love blueberry maple syrup, made with homegrown blueberries and syrup heated together until blueberries are almost bursting. It is great on top of ice cream, pancakes and waffles. Plain yogurt topped with maple syrup is my guilt free dessert and, when no one is looking, half an avocado filled with maple syrup is pure bliss.

But the biggest difference the maple syrup makes is in my sesame noodle recipe. We're addicted to it and it always sells out at the market. I'm convinced the secret is my homemade maple syrup. Here's the recipe for you to try and judge for yourself. With a food processor, this is a breeze to whip up and the sauce will keep a day or two in the fridge. Enjoy!

Maple Sesame Noodles - Photo by Amy

For the sauce:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Shao Xing wine (Chinese cooking wine or substitute cooking sherry)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon hot sesame oil
Tabasco and/or cayenne pepper to taste

1 pound thin linguine
2 red bell peppers, julienned
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
4 scallions, sliced

Put all sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor, fitted with a steel blade, and puree until smooth.

Cook the linguine in a large pot of salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta, place it in a large bowl, and while still warm, toss with the sauce. Add the red bell peppers, cilantro and scallions; toss well. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 8 servings.

This post was entered into the "Grow Your Own" roundup, created by Andrea's Recipes and hosted this month by House of Annie.

Lao Food: Sticky Rice

2010-03-04T07:35:00.004-05:00

My mother and I only get to spend about ten days together each year. She lives in France and we try to make each visit count. My goal each time is to come away with a part of her that I can cherish and hang on to. We often talk about my grandmother, who used to grow herbs and vegetables along the banks of the Mekong river in Laos, where the receding flood waters leave the soil rich and fertile. Mom also reminds me of Lao customs, like you mustn't sit higher than the oldest person in the room. Mostly, though, we talk about knitting and cooking. My mother knits and crochets beautifully, without using patterns, and tries to convince me that I, too, can knit without a pattern. I'm not convinced.

My last visit was a couple of weeks ago. Mom thinks I can't cook, certainly not Lao food, so this time, we worked on my Lao cooking skills. This post, then, begins my journey into the cooking of traditional Lao food, with guidance from the great matriarch.

The foundation of a Lao meal is sticky rice, or perhaps more proper, glutinous rice. This is a long grain rice different from Jasmine, sushi or basmati rice. The rice is first soaked and then steamed. When cooked, it sticks together in one big mass and is eaten with your hands. A small ball of rice is made with your fingers and then dipped into spicy chiew. The rice absorbs the chiew like a sponge. Chiew is always present at my mother's table and is made mostly of roasted chilies, shallots and garlic. I'll have more to follow on dishes that go with sticky rice but first here's how to make the rice. To begin, you'll need a rice steamer and basket to cook the rice. You'll also need a covered rice basket to store and serve the cooked rice. These are all available online or at an Asian grocery.

Rice steamer and basket

Serving rice baskets

In a regular mixing bowl, cover two cups of rice with 2 to 3 inches of water and soak for 6 to 24 hours. I usually do this in the morning for the evening meal, or overnight for lunch.

Drain the rice and place in the steamer basket. Set the basket over several inches of boiling water in a large pot, making sure the bottom of the steamer basket does not touch the water below. Cover the basket with whatever regular pot lid fits. After steaming for 20 minutes, flip the rice over so what was on top is now on the bottom. To do this like my Mom does, hold the top of the steamer basket in both hands and take it away from the boiling pot of water. Then, an up-and-down jerking motion can lift and flip the rice. It takes a little practice, and it may take several tries before you get it. (Or you can use a big wooden spoon.) When the rice is flipped over, steam, uncovered, for another 5 minutes. Turn the cooked rice out onto a tray and with a long-handled wooden spoon flatten it out and turn it over on itself. This helps get rid of any clumps and lets off steam so the rice doesn't get soggy.

Place the hot rice in a covered rice basket and keep warm under a thick blanket. Serve warm or at room temperature, directly from the basket. Spoons or other utensils are never used to serve the rice. People help themselves, using their fingers. Keep the rice basket covered when not in use or the rice will dry out if it is exposed to the air for long.

Two cups of uncooked rice will yield 4 servings.

Freshly cooked sticky rice

Eat with your fingers

At the kids' table, they're having sticky rice and omelet dipped in Maggi sauce.

Culturally confused, our Lao meal is followed by French cheese.

Links about Laos and Lao food:
http://laocook.com/about/
http://laobumpkin.blogspot.com/

Hibernating in the Kitchen

2010-01-29T20:15:00.005-05:00

January is long and cold in New Hampshire. Sunshine is in short supply and I find comfort in the kitchen, digging out my collection of recipes for hibernation. There are the soups, of course, along with homemade bread and pizza dough. It's also time to get creative with all the food that I've put up from last summer and fall. Here's what's in store:

potatoes
Delicata squash
Red Kuri squash
pounds of garlic

In the freezer...
maple syrup

blueberries
raspberries
peaches
kale
Swiss chard
jars of apple sauce

That's a lot of food for two people. But during the growing season, out in the sunshine, when the picking is good, I can't stop myself. I pick and save everything that comes my way. Oh, I didn't mention the wild mushrooms, did I? Yes, I have them too, dried and frozen maitakes, oysters and chanterelles. All these will surely find their way into my weekly meals that I deliver to the Walpole Grocery.

First up is the Red Kuri squash, also called Hokkaido. It is prolific and carefree in the garden, a long keeper that gets better with age, like most women ;-).

Red Kuri Squash after harvest last September--Photo by Amy

Last week, I made Thai Curry Squash Soup to drop off at WG. It went over so well, I made it again this week. I start with two large Red Kuri squashes, about 5 lbs each. Don't peel them yet, just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper, then roast them in a 450F oven until they're cooked through, about 30 minutes to an hour. Roasting winter squashes intensifies their sweetness. Even better, the roasting warms the kitchen and I just love the sweet, yummy aroma.

Fresh from the oven

When cooled, I peel away the skin and puree the flesh in the food processor, thinning with water when necessary. The two 5 lbs squashes I started with yielded about 6 lbs of peeled and cooked squash. A French farmer once compared the taste of the Red Kuri to a chestnut. I think the resemblance stops at the texture, it's mealy and sweet. Mealy may not sound appealing but, trust me, in this case it works. If you're not familiar with this heirloom, give it a try.

Thai Curry Squash Soup
10 lbs Red Kuri Squash or any kind of winter squash, roasted and pureed (see above)
15-oz can coconut milk
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
2 TBS green curry paste, or to taste
1 stalk lemon grass, cut into 3" lengths, crushed
3 kaffir lime leaves
fish sauce or salt to taste
2 cups fresh Swiss Chard or other greens

To a 6 qt. soup pot, add coconut milk and curry paste. Simmer a minute or two then add 4 cups of chicken stock. Add the pureed squash, stirring as you do to get out the lumps. Thin soup with additional 4 cups of water or until desired consistency. Add lemon grass and lime leaves. Simmer another 15 to 20 minutes to blend the flavors. Season to taste with fish sauce. Just before I take it to the store I add the Swiss chard for color and texture. Makes 5 quarts.

Thai Curry Squash Soup

Don't forget to fish out the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves before serving. Bon Appetit!

Party food

2009-12-31T14:30:00.004-05:00

Outside the temperature is a frightful 8 degrees F. and I really don't care to know what the wind chill might be. I'm snug in my kitchen cooking party food for the Walpole Grocery, our cute little gourmet market right here in Walpole, NH.

Inside Barbara and Krystyna demand Tingfood

Susie plates up some spring rolls

John serves up sesame noodles

Barbara gets her lunch

Sesame noodles and chicken satay

Happy New Year to all!

Peace

2009-12-25T07:20:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidays!

Garlic Potato Soup

2009-11-20T20:50:00.002-05:00

For the last five years, Jennifer has held an open studio sale so that she and I and other artists have an outlet for our need to create. This year, we also fed our need for community with a pot luck supper so we could spend more time with friends who live too far away and who we don't see often enough.

Feeding the community and ...

...the imagination and more...

To go with the main dishes of turkey and veggie chilis, I made Twice Baked Potatoes with Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese from my new favorite food site, culinate. I used homegrown yukon gold for this do-ahead kind of mashed potatoes and followed the recipe exactly, not easy for me since I always tweak everything. I assembled the dish the night before and carried it south in a cooler. When it was time to eat, 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven was all that was needed. It was convenient, portable and oh so very good topped with turkey chili and a small dollop of sour cream.

What I really want to share with you, however, is the soup I made with the extra baked potatoes that didn't make it to the pot luck. I rough chopped a half dozen or so of the medium size ones and added them to my Fresh Garlic Soup, making it thicker and heartier. Topped with a scattering of sauteed wild mushrooms, this soup feeds your body and your soul.

Garlic Potato Soup with mushrooms

Homegrown goodness

The recipe:

4 cups potatoes, cooked and roughly chopped
2 heads of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
1 large leek, or 1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 sage leaves
4 cups chicken stock
2+ cups of water
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Sauteed mushrooms (optional)
salt and pepper

In a soup pot, bring 4 cups of chicken stock to a boil, add all ingredients, simmer gently uncovered, until garlic and potatoes are very soft, about 20 minutes. Remove sage leaves and puree soup in a blender or food processor. Return to pot, stir in Parmesan cheese. For thinner soup add water as needed and adjust seasoning accordingly. My husband likes crunchy croutons with his soups, but I think this soup needs nothing more than an arugula salad, fresh picked from the garden, with thin slices of apples, a sprinkling of toasted nuts and your favorite dressing. Mine is creamy blue cheese.

Crispy Kale Snack

2009-10-17T14:45:00.007-04:00

Even as I glean every last bit of kale from the garden and crisping them in the oven, Walpole is a colorful blaze, a perfect picture of fall in New England.

View from March Hill Road, Walpole, NH. Photo by Amy.

Red Russian Kale, the only kind I grow, is delicate and hardy

Kale and Swiss chard rule the garden at this time of year and as I'm staring down a huge basket of kale, taking up half my kitchen, I get an email from Maggie telling me about her new way with kale. The idea is simple, toss fresh kale with olive oil, spread them out in a single layer on a large cookie sheet and roast in 350 degree oven until crispy but still green. Maggie's directions were to

"toss torn 3-inch size pieces with oil. Bake 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until crisp and crunchy."

My Red Russian only needed 10 minutes and stirring was not necessary. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt, pepper and/or freshly grated Parmesan. Serve immediately, these are so easy to make, fun to eat and criminally addictive.

Crispy Kale Snack

Cook's tips:
- Line cookie sheet with parchment paper to prevent kale from sticking.
- Don't let the kale get brown, at that point it can get bitter.

Travelling Harvest

2009-09-23T06:46:00.005-04:00

I'm getting ready to make my annual pilgrimage to see Mom and my seven siblings in Montpellier, in the south of France. As glamorous as that may sound, I don't feel all that glamorous. In fact, I feel more like a farmer going to the city with my goods, for here's what I plan to bring--

Almost 8 lbs of lemongrass

3 lbs of Maitake, courtesy of Krystyna, my mushroom connection. She keeps me supplied and safe.

A 12 foot row of Thai basil I plan to pick and take with me.

Why, you may wonder, am I lugging my harvest across the ocean? A little bit is insanity but mostly because I'm grateful to live in a place with rich fertile soil and where there's so much rain that mushrooms grow wild with abandon. Meanwhile, in Montpellier, there has not been a drop of rain since June and my mom's garden is parched and barren.

Save the Fruits of Summer

2009-09-08T18:10:00.008-04:00

When school buses roll and a chill is in the air, I'm relieved that the summer heat and humidity are finally gone and I can get out and enjoy the garden once again. At the same time, however, I'm filled with a sense of urgency to get on with harvesting and preserving. Here are some fast and easy ways I use to put up fruits and vegetables for the winter.

Onions and garlic are easy and carefree to grow. Keep them through the cold months by tying them into bundles, hanging them to dry then cleaning and storing them in a cool, dark place.

Garlic ready for the cellar or, in our house, the front hall closet -- it's dark and cool.

To make pickled hot peppers, simply slice, put in jars and fill with vinegar. After a week, they're ready to be sprinkled over nachos or pizzas for extra heat.

This is Emily's German Pickled Zucchini. The secret to this recipe is the unique flavor of Gurken-Meister, a German pickling vinegar. She gave me a bottle (she likes to do this) and a list of ingredients. Even with no instructions, this was easy to make and used a ton of the overgrown zucchinis from the garden.

German Pickled Zucchini
2 lbs zucchinis, cut into bite size pieces
3 red peppers, cut into bite size pieces
3 onions, cut into bite size pieces
1 cup Gurken-Mesiter
2 cups apple juice
1 cup sugar
1 TBS dill
1 TBS mustard seeds
1 TBS peppercorn
2 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder

Put all ingredients in a large stock pot, bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes. Put into hot sterilized jars and seal. Makes 2 quarts.

When Emily first brought these pickles to knitting night in small, pint jars, they were gone instantly. They disappear just as quickly at our house without the knitters so I now put them in quart size jars or larger. The vegetables become sweet and crunchy, good with grilled meats and sandwiches.

Plum and Cherry Brandy

When fruits are plentiful and ripe to bursting, the fastest way to save them is to put them in a jar and cover with vodka. I add one cup of sugar to 1 quart of vodka, but use more or less according to your taste. After six weeks, decant and serve. Intoxicating with only a slight sweetness.

This Blueberry Bounce is vodka infused with blueberries, sugar, herbs and spices.
Just right over fruit desserts and as an after-dinner nightcap.

Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning was my inspiration for some of these creations. The book highlights "traditional but little-known French techniques for storing and preserving edibles in ways that maximize flavor and nutrition." It's a good read.

Sweet and Sour Cucumber

2009-08-19T12:45:00.006-04:00

Here's a recipe to get you through the hazy, hot days of summer.

Sweet and Sour Cucumber

In my farmers' market days, I served this relish/salad along side my Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce (recipe will be posted very soon, I promise), but this fresh relish really goes with everything. Try it with hot or cold meats, alongside lunch time sandwiches, or all by itself for guilt-free snacking. It is a perfect way to deal with cucumber glut from the garden.

Sweet and Sour Cucumber
4 to 6 small cucumbers, thinly sliced into circles or half moons
1 small onion, cut in half and thinly sliced

Marinade:
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tsp salt

Garnish (optional):
little tiny hot chili peppers (as much as you can take)
cilantro

In a sauce pan over low heat, dissolve sugar in the water, remove from heat and stir in vinegar and salt. Makes two cups.

Put cucumber and onion in a serving bowl, add marinade to cover the vegetables. Garnish as desired. Refrigerate until ready to eat but the flavor improves as it sits. It will keep for about five days in the fridge, except at our house, where it doesn't last that long.

Cook's tips:
Double or triple the marinade, it keeps in the fridge almost indefinitely. Easy and convenient.

Pick cucumbers when they're still small, when the seeds are just starting to form. At this stage they're popping crisp and distinctly sweet.

My Garden: Wild and Weedy

2009-07-29T21:11:00.004-04:00

With all the rain we've had this summer, my rambunctious garden is like a child only a mother could love - no matter how unruly, it's still the object of my affection.

Can this garden be saved?
My mistake here was mulching with hay. Apparently there's a big difference between hay and straw: Hay contains weed seeds and straw does not...oops.

Tomatillos and potatoes threatening to take over the strawberries.

I'm hoping the watermelon will crawl over and crowd out the weeds.
Wishful thinking?

The asparagus rises above all obstacles.

Cucumbers finally getting the long awaited summer heat.

It's time to harvest all the lettuce before they bolt.
When I have a lot of lettuce and fresh herbs, I serve Spring Roll Lettuce Wrap, and that's what I did at our monthly supper club. Six of us chowed down almost half this row, six heads of lettuce, a light meal with lots of moans and groans.

Thai basil, another good candidate for Spring Roll Lettuce Wrap.

Garlic and weeds

My favorite, Patty Pan, has the best texture and flavor of all summer squashes.

Swiss chard, onions and black turtle beans.
The brick mulch keeps Ben, our garden tiger, from claiming the garden as his own.

Lao Food Festival

2009-07-09T08:20:00.004-04:00

Every year on the Fourth of July the Lao-American community from across the country converges at the Buddhist temple, Wat Lao Buddhavong, in Catlett, VA, to celebrate America and to recreate a bit of their homeland.

Food plays an important role in Lao society. Walk into a Lao home and the first thing you're asked is "Have you eaten yet?" Even religious offerings show respect by offering foods to the monks and this event was no exception.

Alm Bowls collect food for the monks, Catlett, VA.
See photo of alm giving during morning procession of Buddhist monks in Luang Prabang

A couple of my siblings and I drove ten hours, from New Hampshire to Virginia, to walk down memory lane and reminisce about our childhood in Laos. We were not disappointed. We were transported back by the sights and sounds, and most of all, by the food, too complicated to make in our own kitchens. That could now change, however. We were inspired by the experience and vowed to start making some of our favorite native dishes. So stay tuned and if you have a favorite Lao recipe, please email me or share it in the comment section below.

For food lovers interested in authentic Lao food, this is as close as you can get without a visa. There are two festivals each year--July Fouth and the Lao New Year, usually in April, according to the lunar calendar.

Here's a sampling of dishes typically found at festivals and celebrations from the old country.

Tum Mak Hoong - Green Papaya Salad - hot, sweet and sour

Savory and sweet coconut pancakes made with rice flour and coconut milk, fried in a cast iron mold.

Grilled meats infused with the ever present lemon grass, chili peppers, and fish sauce

Pickled mangoes, a sour and salty treat

Tropical Mangos and Lychee Nuts

Traditional Lao costume

Sweet drinks and desserts

Grilled coconut sticky rice in banana leaf

Sesame Balls filled with sweet mung bean paste

Kao Lam - bamboo logs filled with coconut sticky rice and taro or black beans

Kao Lam is enjoyed warm or at room temperature for snack or dessert.

Lao Links I like that you might enjoy:
Laocook
Lao Bumpkin

Jalapeno-Onion Relish, Fast and Flexible

2009-06-30T08:12:00.002-04:00

Super easy and versatile, this relish, full of heat, is a must for your July Fourth barbecue. When I was a young bride, my brother in-law, Cameron, showed up at a family cook out with a a jar of his jalapeno-onion relish and it has not been absent from our fridge ever since. It is so good with hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, grilled meats and fish, really it goes with everything. Take it to a barbecue and you'll come home with an empty dish.

It is simply sliced onion and pickled jalapeno with curry powder, ground cumin, salt and pepper. That's it. I slice an extra large onion, Vidalia is great in season, saute in a bit of olive oil, for about five minutes then add the pickled jalapeno with a splash of its juice and stir. Add about two teaspoon curry powder, a teaspoon cumin, salt and pepper to taste, sautee and stir until onion and peppers are tender but still firm, about ten minutes. This will make about a pint depending on the size of the onion and the amount of jalapeno.

Later in the summer when the garden provides fresh hot peppers, I'll use these and add vinegar instead of the pickled jalapeno and its juice. The amount of peppers controls the heat of course, I use one part hot peppers to 3 parts onion. Possible additions and substitutions abound. Sometimes I add ground coriander but when the garden has cilantro, I'll use it instead. You can add some chopped garlic and/or some hot pepper flakes when you don't have enough jalapeno or fresh hot peppers. Have fun and enjoy the heat.

Around the Garden

2009-06-24T08:11:00.001-04:00

Peonies bowing to the rain

Blooming sugar snaps

Cilantro and shallots

Buds on spuds.

Heirloom in bloom

Red and green lettuce with purple onions

Baby beets

A Bird's eye view

Garlic Scapes - Another Seasonal Delight

2009-06-18T08:08:00.005-04:00

Garlic scape is the flower stem of the garlic plant that, in my garden, emerges around mid June. It curls upward as it grows, ultimately straightening out and blooming. When the scape curls and forms a full circle, it is time to pick. After that, the stalk starts to get tough.

Farmers used to cut off the scapes and discard them so the plant would put all its energy into producing bigger and better bulbs. But scapes are starting to make an appearance at farmers' markets and CSA shares. The window of availability is brief, only about a week, so when you see them don't think twice. Take them home. They're versatile and delicious and have long been a part of Asian and Eastern European cooking. In most recipes, they can replace garlic, scallions and onions, but also asparagus and green beans because their flavor is so subtle.

The whole stem is edible except for the flower bud. The buds are quite tough and should be removed in certain recipes. For stir fry and pasta dishes, I cut the stems into 2" pieces, composting the flower buds. When I pickle, roast or grill them, I like the way they look with the buds attached. There are hundreds of recipes on the internet, mostly for garlic scape pesto. I haven't made the pesto yet but can't imagine it would be bad.

This week I harvested 3 lbs of scapes and, for a quick supper for two, made this dish with rotini pasta, about 20 garlic scapes, a handful of just picked asparagus, feta cheese and kalamata olives. Quick, easy and satisfying.

Pasta with Garlic Scapes, Feta Cheese and Olives

2 cups dry pasta (any kind)
2 strips of bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
20+ garlic scapes, cut into 2" pieces, discard the flower buds
1/2 lb asparagus (or any other vegetables), cut into 2" pieces
1/4 cup Feta Cheese
1/4 cup Pitted kalanata olives.
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp hot pepper flakes, or to taste
salt and pepper

Cook pasta until al dente, drain and save a cup of pasta water. In the same pan that you cooked the pasta in, add a tablespoon olive oil and bacon, cook until bacon is brown and crisp. Remove from pan and set aside. Add garlic scapes to the same pan, cook and stir for two minutes, then add the asparagus with a splash of pasta water, cook until vegetables are tender about 3 more minutes. Add hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Add the pasta and mix well, add pasta water if too dry, adjust seasoning, top with bacon and serve. Serves 2.

With the rest of the harvest I made Garlic Scape Pickles. I used my favorite Dilly Bean brine, added a little sugar (to take the edge off the acidity), ten or so chili peppers and cilantro with roots attached. Two weeks in the fridge and they'll be ready to eat.

Pickled Garlic Scapes with Hot Peppers and Cilantro

Here are links to more garlic scape recipes:
The Garlic Scape: Eat It or Wear It
Clagett Farm Notes
Down on the Farm

What to do with Bolting Onions

2009-06-10T13:12:00.004-04:00

I planted 80 onion sets in late April and now some of them have started to bolt. Bolting means that the onion has stopped growing and will not bulb. It will put all its energy into making seeds and get tough and old. It should be harvested which is not a good thing if you are looking to grow onions for winter use. But, for now, we have an over abundance of green onions, a challenge I look forward to each growing season.

We love grilled garden vegetables so that is what I did with the first batch of green onions. I cleaned and cut them to about 6" to include just the white bulb and the light green part, saving the darker green leaves for the Mongolian beef below. I tossed the pieces in olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled them, over high heat, along with some asparagus that I'm still picking. I cooked them until just tender, then transfered them to a serving bowl and finished them with another splash of olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. This was a delight: smoky and gently sweet with a slight crunch.

Grilled green onions and asparagus

The second dish I made goes back almost thirty years. My family will tell you it is one of their favorites. It combines tender slices of beef and green onions with a ginger sauce. The recipe came from an out of print Chinese Menu cookbook published in 1976. Through the years I have remained mostly faithful to the original recipe, only changing the amount of green onions. I've doubled and, last week, even tripled the original amount. They all just wilt down anyway, so use as much as you like.

Mongolian Beef with Jasmine Rice

1 lb flank steak

Marinade:
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sugar
2 TBS cornstarch
1 TBS canola oil

Seasonings:
1 whole green onion, bulb and leaves
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 clove garlic

Sauce:
2 TBS soy sauce
3 TBS dry sherry or good white wine
1 TBS hoisin sauce
3 TBS water

12+ green onions, bulbs and leaves

4 TBS canola oil

1 tsp sesame oil

First I pour myself a glass of wine, then I start the rice in the rice cooker, which is as simple as putting rice and water in the rice cooker and pushing "cook". The rice cooks and stays warm until you're ready to eat.

Cut flank steak in half lengthwise, then thinly slice across the grain. In a large bowl combine the marinade ingredients and add sliced beef. Set aside.

Cut green onions into 2" pieces. Set aside.

Finely mince seasoning ingredients, put in a small bowl. Set aside.

Combine sauce ingredients. Set aside.

Now you're ready to stir fry. It's important to have all your ingredients ready before heating up the wok, high heat is key to successful stir frying and food is cooked in a flash.

Heat wok over high heat.
Add 2 tablespoon canola oil.
When oil is hot, add meat and its marinade. The oil is hot if it sizzles when you stick a wooden chopstick or wooden spoon into it.
Stir fry until meat is just pink, about 2 minutes.
Remove from wok to a bowl.
Add 2 tablespoon canola oil to the same wok.
When oil is hot add seasonings.
Stir a few times until slightly fragrant, then add the sauce mixture.
Stir and add green onion pieces.
Stir for a minute until onion is slightly wilted, then return beef to the wok.
Stir until beef is heated through .
Stir in sesame oil.

Remove from wok and serve with jasmine rice.

Serves 2 generously and the recipe doubles easily.

I'm still trying to figure out why onions bolt but for now I'm wallowing in green onions.

Pucker Up, it's time to cook with rhubarb

2009-06-01T08:23:00.001-04:00

People either love rhubarb or they hate rhubarb. My friend Maggie loves it, my husband hates it and I'm learning to like it.

I want to be a rhubarb lover because it's impossible that I not like something this gorgeous and because I've been listening to Maggie sing the praises of rhubarb for too many years. I'm also unable to resist any thing fresh picked. Not only do I have several rhubarb plants of my own, my neighbor has been dropping off her harvest because she knows my weakness.

So when Maggie heard I was having a bumper crop of rhubarb, she sent me this pie recipe that she got from her mother who got it from a neighbor's aunt, who was a Native American. I've not made this recipe exactly but I made a short cut version inspired by my favorite lemon squares recipe. So here are Maggie's pie recipe and my squares recipe. The fillings are almost the same but the crusts are totally different (that's where the short cut is.) I hope you'll try both and enjoy rhubarb while it's in season.

Rhubarb Pie - photo and pie by Maggie

3+ cups rhubarb stems, chopped, like celery, into 1/2 inch pieces (if the stem is thick, slit lengthwise in half first)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbl tapioca
½ tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients and let stand while making your favorite 9" pie crust. Fill unbaked crust with rhubarb mixture and cover with crumbs made with :
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbl. Flour
2 Tbl butter

Bake pie in preheated oven at 425 degrees for first 10 minutes, then 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes more. Cool on a wire rack.

Rhubarb Squares

1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
pinch of salt

4 cups rhubarb stems, chopped, like celery, into 1/2 inch pieces (if the stem is thick, slit in half lengthwise first
1 cup sugar
2 TBS tapioca
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, brown sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor, pulse on and off until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press into the bottom of a greased 9-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes.

While crust is baking, combine sugar, tapioca, eggs and vanilla in a bowl. Stir in rhubarb; pour over the warm crust. Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Cut into 16 squares. Store in refrigerator.

Note: Only the stems of the rhubarb are edible, the leaves are toxic and should be composted. Here's a link on How to grow rhubarb.

What's Growing in the Garden 5/26/09

2009-05-26T21:08:00.013-04:00

Sugar snap peas, planted April 2nd, are 2' tall.

Yukon Gold potatoes, ready for hilling

Red Rhododendron starting to bloom

Orange Azalea in full bloom

Red onions, Johnny Jump Ups and a new deck

Take a look at Amy's beautiful photographs of my garden.

Green Garlic: a culimary treat

2009-05-23T10:00:00.002-04:00

Green garlic is the young shoot of garlic before it matures into the familiar bulb. It can be found at farmers' markets between March and May. Here in southern New Hampshire, in mid-May, my garlic bed is ready to be thinned out.

When I planted garlic last fall, I planted them closer than the recommended 4" apart, ensuring a surplus of the "weeded" out baby shoots, the green garlic that is much sought after by restaurant chefs.

The flavor of green garlic is definitely garlicky without the pungency of mature garlic. If you sometimes avoid garlic because of its strong lingering taste, green garlic will surprise you with its delicate sweet taste and mild manner. I use it as a substitute for regular garlic or, cut up into 1/2" pieces, in place of scallions in stir fries. I've used it in Beef with Asparagus and sprinkled over Homemade Naan right after it comes out of the oven. What you get is a mild unobtrusive taste of garlic.

Although the whole plant can be eaten, I use only the white and light green parts. The darker green leaves are a bit tough and strong and would be good to add to soups and stews but I haven't tried that yet, so stay tuned for more about garlic this summer.

Green garlic or baby garlic straight from the garden

Pasta with Shrimp, Spinach and Green Garlic

This is my go to pasta with greens, olive oil and garlic. Note that these amounts are approximate, I don't really measure anything when I make this, and I make it almost weekly with endless variations depending on what vegetables are on hand. Last week was the first picking of baby spinach and green garlic and so they came together in this super easy pasta

1/2 lb thin spaghetti, or pasta of your choice
1/2 lb peeled and deveined raw shrimp
4 TBS olive oil
4 - 6 cups baby spinach or any other vegetables
3 to 4 green garlic, minced, white and light green parts only
Salt and Pepper to taste
Hot pepper flakes to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Cook spaghetti in a large pot of generously salted boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes until al dente. Reserve one cup or so of cooking liquid and drain. In the same pot the pasta was cooked in, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat. Add green garlic and a pinch of pepper flakes, cook 30 seconds. Add the shrimp, salt and pepper and cook until shrimp is pink but not completely cooked, about 2 minutes. Remove from pan onto a plate. Add two tablespoons oil to the same pan and add pasta and a little cooking liquid if too dry. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Return shrimp to pan and add spinach. Continue cooking and stirring until spinach is slightly wilted and bright green, about 2 minutes, adding pasta cooking liquid as needed. Remove from heat and serve, topped with grated Parmesan. Serves 4.

Homemade Naan, It's Easy and Fun

2009-05-15T15:32:00.025-04:00

A popular Indian flat bread, Naan is traditionally baked in a clay Tandoor oven, but with a pizza stone you too can make authentic delicious naan.

Adapted from a recipe from Manjula's Kitchen, the dough is simple to make and the timing is flexible. You can set the dough to rise in the morning and bake when you get home from work. Or you can let it rise over night and bake any time the next day. If you can't get to it right away, punch the dough down and put it in the fridge. When you're ready, bring it back to room temperature before shaping and baking.

Naan Recipe:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of baking soda
2 tablespoons oil
2 1/2 tablespoons plain yogurt
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 cup all purpose flour for rolling

1 TBS melted butter
Fleur de Sel (Kosher salt can be substituted)
Fresh cracked black pepper

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let "bloom" for 15 minutes.

Put flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in the bowl of a standing mixer and, using the dough hook, mix on low until combined. Add yogurt, oil and yeast mixture then knead on medium, for about 5 to 10 minutes. Add small amounts of flour if too wet, until a very soft ball of dough forms. Turn out onto floured board and knead lightly by hand, adding flour to the board to keep the soft dough from sticking.

Put dough back into the same bowl used for mixing and let rise, at room temperature, at least 2 hours or until it doubles in bulk.

When ready to bake, preheat oven, with pizza stone in the lower quarter of the oven, to 500 degrees. Punch down the dough using oiled hands and, on a well floured board, knead lightly and divide into six equal balls.

Roll balls out into a rectangle about 1/4" thick, using plenty of flour to prevent dough from sticking.

Gently place two or three naans directly on baking stone and bake 5 to 7 minutes, watch closely as they can burn quickly. When puffy with brown spots all over, they're ready and should be placed on a cooling rack. While still warm, brush lightly with melted butter, sprinkle with Fleur de Sel and fresh cracked pepper. Proceed with the rest of the batch. Makes 6 Naans

We love Naan with Indian curries and chutneys but it's equally at home with kabobs or even aged cheddar cheese. We eat it with everything but our absolute favorite is all by itself, fresh and still warm from the oven. There's nothing like it. Should there be any left overs, they toast up perfectly in the toaster oven, much like the sourdough waffles. I can see how this could be habit forming.

Tip:
My naans are never of uniform size or shape but don't sweat that part, they bake up perfectly every time, always delicious and they disappear quickly.

Here's a video from Manjula's Kitchen that I found helpful.

Beef with Asparagus

2009-05-08T12:44:00.008-04:00

They're here! The asparagus have finally arrived. Having an asparagus bed in the garden is like money in the bank, the dividends come each spring like clock work.

Asparagus is a perennial, and that means it is planted once and will produce for 15 years or more. If you have a garden and don't have an asparagus bed, spring is a good time to do it. Growing asparagus is easy but only for the patient. Plant the roots this spring but no harvesting until next year and even then only very lightly. On the third year and every year thereafter they're yours for the pickin', forgive the pun. Here's more info on how to plant an asparagus bed.

We love asparagus in every which way--roasted, grilled, steamed, in stir fry and pasta dishes. An old family favorite is Stir-Fried Beef with Vegetables--asparagus, green beans, broccoli, whatever is in season and available, but for us this week asparagus has center stage.

Beef with Asparagus
1/2 lb flank steak, thinly sliced across the grain
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
oil for frying
4 scallions, cut in 1 1/2-inch lengths
Salt
1 lb asparagus cut diagonally in 1 1/2-inch lengths
2 TBS oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 2 TBS water

Marinate meat with cornstarch, soy sauce, salt, sugar, and garlic for 10 minutes.
Heat wok or large frying pan, add 2 tablespoons oil and heat. Toss in scallions and cook 30 seconds. Add meat and stir-fry over high hear for a minute until browned on the outside and pink in the middle. Remove from pan. Heat 2 more tablespoons oil in the same pan, add asparagus, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and stir-fry over high heat for a minute or two until asparagus is tender but still al dente. Add a bit of water if the pan is too dry. Return meat and scallions to pan, add oyster sauce and soy sauce. Add cornstarch-water mixture and give a quick stir until thickened. Serve over jasmine rice or short grain brown rice. This is a seasonal delight that will wean you from Chinese take-out forever. Serves 4.

Links to easy asparagus recipes:
Grilled Asparagus
Roastd Asparagus
Wok-Seared Chicken with Asparagus & Pistachios

Do you have a favorite asparagus recipes? Do share them below in the comment section.

What's Growing in the Garden

2009-04-28T11:56:00.017-04:00

We're starting to get some serious heat and the garden is exploding...

The front garden

Pink Magnolia

A welcome weed--these violas grow wild in the paths and in the beds

First asparagus

Young rhubarb

Sugar Snap Peas planted April 2nd.

Garlic shares a bed with spring greens--radish, lettuce and arugula

Instant Tamale

2009-04-23T13:27:00.009-04:00

The task at hand is four cords of wood to be stacked. It seems like we just got over winter to be thinking about firewood but, in a way, the job is made easier by the recent memory of knitting by the fire when snow is falling outside.

Work in progress

"You get some kind of zen satisfaction from stacking firewood" my husband observes. I'll admit, I do. There's something good and honest about it, like growing your own food. On top of that you get as your reward, neatly stacked firewood all ready for when the north wind blows. How does that not make you feel cozy?

This Instant Tamale is what I make when I've been outdoors all day stacking wood or weeding the garden. It's based on a recipe from my dog eared copy of Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook, not an authentic tamale but when you're too busy to cook, this one is fast and easy. The leftover is reason enough to make this dish, and the flavor is even better the next day.

Instant Tamale fresh from the oven

With pre-made polenta and store bought salsa, dinner takes no more than 15 minutes to put together and the rest is done by the oven.

26.5 oz can black beans with juice
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 cup tomato salsa
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground chipotle (or to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
18 oz roll prepared polenta
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil 8" x 11 1/2" baking pan. Empty the beans and their juice into a large bowl and mash with a potato masher. Add the corn, salsa, cumin, chipotle and salt and mix well. Set aside. Slice polenta into 1/4" thick rounds. Arrange the rounds in the prepared baking pan slightly overlapping. Pour the bean mixture evenly over the polenta. Sprinkle on the cilantro and top with the grated cheese. Cover and bake 15 minutes, uncover and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes until the beans are bubbly and the cheese is melted. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Is it Gin or is it Vodka?

2009-04-13T15:19:00.009-04:00

We really are just a knitting group and don't drink anything besides wine--red or white is as hard core as we get, until Emily, one of the knitters, started making her own gin. Ian's Gin Recipe was the recipe she used and the recipe she left on my counter top complete with a bottle of vodka (from which will come the gin) along with all the herbs and spices needed to make homemade gin. Now who can resist that?

And so I set out to make my own version, changing it slightly by adding some dried hot peppers.

It starts with a 750 ml bottle of vodka infused with:

2 Tbsp juniper berries
3/4 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp fennel seed
3 green cardamom pods
2 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf, torn into pieces
1 tsp dried lavender
1 (3-inch) sprig fresh rosemary
1 (2-inch-long) fresh lemon or lime peel
3 dried Thai hot chili peppers

Infuse juniper berries in the vodka overnight. Add remaining spices and herbs in the morning and let infuse all day.

When you get home from work, strain out the botanicals and you have gin.

Now, I'm not a gin connoisseur and the only gin I've ever had is in the form of a gin and tonic during the hot summer months. Putting Emily's gin to the test, the knitters put away the wine glasses and drank home made gin and tonic. It was surprisingly good and fresh, with a slight floral bouquet and our winter weary spirits were temporarily lifted.

Did it taste like gin? I think so, but fresher and lighter. It was good in gin and tonic, as well as in a pomegranate martini, but I like it best frozen and straight up in a shot glass, like vodka, for I can't help but think of it as infused vodka .

Gin and tonic with home made gin

Here are a few other aromatics I might add when I make it again:

More hot pepper
Kaffir lime leaves
Orange peel

Have fun, and if you get a chance to play with the recipe, leave a comment below and let me know whether you think its gin or vodka and how you like to drink it.

Deviled Eggs with Chives

2009-04-05T10:46:00.014-04:00

Chives are at their peak right now, about 10"-12" tall here in my zone 5 garden. They're best before they start to bloom for once they bloom they become stronger and not quiet as tender. So on the way home from my walk I picked up these beautiful free range eggs at a neighboring farm.

Besides the fact that I adore eggs in any shape or form, they also go really well with chives. I thought about making an omelet with Cheese and Chives or Scrambled Eggs with Cheese and Chives and before chive season is over I'll probably make both those things but today I'm in the mood for deviled eggs, my all time favorite forbidden food.

Start with perfectly cooked eggs. Hard boiled eggs are easily overcooked causing a dark green circle around the yolk with a tinny after taste. Here's my technique for perfect hard boiled eggs--put eggs in a pan, in a single layer, cover the eggs with cold water, plus an inch more. Bring to a gentle boil over medium high heat. When water starts to boil, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 15 minutes. Drain the hot water and soak the eggs in cold water until completely cooled. Farm fresh eggs are harder to peel than older eggs so I usually put my boiled eggs, if they resist peeling, in the fridge until they're very cold. Or I use older eggs.

I don't actually have a recipe for deviled eggs but I did measure as I was making this batch. They came out creamy and decadent and the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled for a crowd.

Deviled Eggs with Chives

6 eggs
2 TBS chopped chives
3-4 TBS mayonnaise
1 TBS sweet pickle relish
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Few drops of Tabasco
Few drops of Maggi Sauce
1/4 tsp ground chipotle peppers
salt to taste

Carefully peel the eggs, cut in half lengthwise, remove the yolks and put in a mixing bowl.

Mash the yolks with a fork, add the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Spoon egg yolk mixture into the egg white halves, arrange on a platter and sprinkle with more chives. Enjoy as hors d'oeuvres or part of a "this 'n that" meal.

A rainy day picnic

What's Growing in the Garden

2009-03-30T13:21:00.012-04:00

It's been a wet and rainy kind of day but I was prepared for the rain. When soaking rain is expected, I try to get as much in the ground as possible. Before today's rain, I planted a bed of spinach and another bed of radishes, arugula and mesclun.I cover the newly seeded beds with row covers to help germination and to keep garden critters out. Then I sit back and let rain do its thing.

Soaking up the cool, spring rain are...

Garlic planted last fall

Chives - a perennial that keeps coming back year after year.
A must for every kitchen garden.

Tête-à-tête daffodils - only 6" tall but the first to bloom.

Spring Roll Lettuce Wrap

2009-03-26T09:36:00.005-04:00

Spring roll lettuce wrap for two

When I make spring rolls I will usually double the recipe and stash them away in the freezer. Later in the season when I'm lost in the garden, these spring rolls are a god send.

When the garden is overflowing with salad greens and herbs, is the time to do the Wrap. Decoratively arrange a large platter of your favorite salad vegetables. Mine usually includes some or all of these:

Leaf lettuce
Sprigs of cilantro
Mint leaves
Bean sprouts
Cucumbers, sliced into thin half moons
Thin slices of raw onion
Cherry tomatoes, cut in half or quarters
Cooked rice noodles
Cooked Spring rolls, cut in half or bite size pieces, with kitchen scissors
Spicy Fish Sauce

At the table take a leaf of lettuce and fill it with a couple of cilantro leaves, one or two mint leaves, five or six bean sprouts, cucumber and onion slices, a piece of tomato, a few strands of noodles and a piece of spring roll. The idea is to add a little of everything but keep the bundle small enough to eat in one huge bite.

Wrap lettuce tightly around the whole bundle.

Drizzle with a generous amount of fish sauce.

Lean over your plate as you take a bite for this is not an elegant meal...it'll be messy...but dig in, eat with your fingers, play with your food.

Kitchen tips:
- Bake frozen spring rolls in a preheated 450 F oven for 30 minutes, turning once, until brown and crunchy.
- If you don't happen to have spring rolls lying around, you can wrap with pieces of cooked fish, chicken or beef.
- Spicy fish sauce, in a jar, will keep almost indefinitely in the refrigerator. It can be whatever you need it to be, a condiment, a salad dressing or a dipping sauce.

Zucchini Bread for Knitting Foodies

2009-03-14T16:10:00.011-04:00

Spring is definitely in the air...

and while I wait for the last snow to melt, I'm on a mission to use up everything I put up last summer and fall. We have been eating from the freezer all winter long and now it's looking quite bare. What I do still have is a few bags of shredded zucchini. Frozen in three cup portions, the exact amount called for in the zucchini bread recipe I've been wanting to try. This was originally a recipe for banana bread and a favorite of Christine's, a fellow knitter. Christine would often show up for our weekly knitting with her moist and not too sweet banana bread, which she serves with whipped cream cheese.

This week, I made my zucchini version for the knitters. Usually we all bring food to share but don't coordinate our efforts so every week is a surprise. Sometimes we all show up with crackers and cheese, sometimes we end up with lots of desserts. Last Tuesday, though, the stars and the moon were aligned and we had tremendous food....

Laura's Spinach, Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Caramelized Walnuts

Lynne's Everything Quiche and Emily's Bacon and Mushroom

Christine's baguette with goat cheese and fig preserves

Ellen's red cabbage and carrot coleslaw

My Zucchini Bread

Sue's Lazy Daisy cake and a parade of other goodies...

...but Karl prefers my homemade waffles with new 2009 vintage maple syrup

Among all that fancy food, my zucchini bread may seem quite ordinary, but don't be fooled, it's yummy, gorgeous and versatile. It's just right with afternoon tea, excellent for dessert and whether its my zucchini bread or Christine's banana version, we all pounce on it whenever it makes an appearance on knitting night. And best of all, it's so easy to make and handy to have around.

One Bowl Zucchini Bread
2 cups flour (I use King Arthur Flour's unbleached all purpose flour)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
3 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped walnut
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil two loaf pans. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix well with your fingers breaking up the lumps of brown sugar. With a wooden spoon, blend in the remaining ingredients in the order given. Beat the batter for 1 or 2 minutes. Bake about 45 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool before slicing. Makes two loaves.

Snow Day Sourdough Waffles

2009-03-08T07:04:00.028-04:00

Yesterday the temperature was in the mid forties and sunny. I sat outside in the warm sunshine, boiling sap, making syrup. Today snow...

So I made Sourdough Waffles to go with yesterday's fresh syrup. When my starter needs to be used and I don't have time to make bread, these waffles are my answer. Set it up the night before, stir in a few ingredients the next morning, and you have the best breakfast ever. They're crisp on the outside, light, fluffy and moist on the inside with a mild sourdough tang. Cook up the whole batch and throw any leftovers in the freezer. They're just as good toasted on a busy morning.

You just have to drag out the old waffle iron and give these a try. Once you've tasted them you'll want to make them over and over again.

Back in 2001 I ordered some sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour and it came with a recipe. I've tweaked and adjusted it over the years and it continues to be our family favorite, with or without the blueberries.

The night before sponge:

1 cup All-Purpose Flour

1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 cups buttermilk (I use Saco dry buttermilk, very convenient and keeps a long time in the fridge)

1 cup sourdough starter

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the above ingredients. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight.

The next morning, while the waffle iron is pre-heating, make the batter

All of the overnight sponge
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, and oil. Add to the overnight sponge, stir in the salt and baking soda. Add the blueberries. Pour batter onto your hot greased waffle iron. For the crispiest waffles, let most of the steam escape and the waffle will be very brown. Serve with butter and hot maple syrup. Serves 4.

How to Make Maple Syrup

2009-03-03T11:26:00.035-05:00

One and a half quarts of maple syrup made from eight 2 gallon buckets of sap, collected over a period of three days and twelve hours of boiling. Is it worth it, you might ask. That depends...to me there's something magical about sugaring. Maybe its the promise of the coming spring, or the miracle of the running sap when all the landscape is still frozen. The drip drip sound of sap hitting the buckets and the snail-pace of the boiling process ground me somehow, connecting me to the land and the trees. If you have one or two maple trees in your yard, give sugaring a try. Your reward will be golden, delicious maple syrup, nectar of the gods.

Here are some simple steps for successful backyard sugaring.

First identify your trees. This is usually easier in the fall, when you can look at the leaves and see their colors, mark the trees and wait for the sap to run. Here in my corner of southern New Hampshire, sap rises in late February when day time temperature is above freezing and night temperature below freezing.

Use a 7/16" drill bit to drill 1 - 1 1/2" tap hole into a mature and healthy sugar maple. Locate the hole directly below the largest, healthiest limb, on the south, southeast or southwest side of the trunk.

This is a standard metal sap spout you can buy at the local hardware store, if you live in sugaring country like I do, or you can mail order them from Bascom Maple Farms.

Gently tap the spout into the drilled hole.

Almost immediately the sap, clear as spring water, will spurt out and drip even before you can get the spout in.

Hang the buckets to catch the drip.

These are used aluminum sap buckets, available from Bascom's for a mere $3.50. They're available used because big syrup producers no longer use buckets, they use tubing to deliver sap to a big holding tank at the bottom 0f the hill.

Collect and boil the sap.

I start the boiling process outdoors, over a gas burner. The long process boils 40 gallons of sap down to 1 gallon of syrup. I fill a large shallow roasting pan with sap that I've strained through a sieve, lined with several layers of cheese cloth, to filter out the big pieces of debris--chunks of wood bark, dead moths, ants, etc. Turn the heat on full blast and boil at full steam, add more sap as the level goes down, skim away the foam and scum that form on the surface, continue evaporating until all collected sap is used up. When the sap in the pan turns amber with concentrated sugar and the temperature begins to rise above the boiling point of water, 212 degrees F, I move to the kitchen for better control.

I strain the liquid , slightly thick at this point, through a dampened felt filter bag, into a large, deep stock pot and clip on a candy thermometer. This is the critical stage that can make or break the final product. The pot can boil over in an instant, going from syrup to burnt at lightning speed. I watch like a hawk. When the temperature reaches 7 degrees above the boiling point of water (219 degrees F), it is syrup. I must admit though, I don't fret too much about all this. I try to get it as close to 220 degrees as possible but, frankly, after 12 hours of boiling, I settle for less than perfect. If my syrup is too thick or too thin my family will never complain, they're lost in the pure pleasure of fresh maple syrup on their waffles and crepes.

To can syrup for longer shelf life, pour hot syrup, at least 180 degrees F, into sterilized jars, cap and let cool in the jars, after which they can be safely stored in the pantry. Having said all that, I still store my jars in the freezer, just in case. Last year I made 9 quarts, and didn't want to risk losing them.

Try making your own syrup at least once, you'll never complain about the cost of pure maple syrup again.

Warm on sourdough waffles and sweet butter. Sublime!

Maple syrup links:
Homemade Maple Syrup
Maple Syrup Facts
Sugaring at Middlebrook Farm School

Slow Roasted Garlic with Rosemary

2009-02-25T07:36:00.010-05:00

By now my stash of garlic has seen better days, they're starting to grow roots and sprout green shoots in the middle. It's time to eat them up. Towards that end, I've been making lots of this mellow and creamy, Slow Roasted Garlic with Rosemary. The smell permeates the whole house, and when it is spread on my crispy N o-knead Sourdough bread, there's nothing else like it.

three heads of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
place in a small casserole to hold the garlic in a tight single layer
barely cover with olive oil
a sprig or two of fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
cover tightly with foil
roast in 300 F oven, until garlic is very soft, about 30 minutes
remove foil
increase oven temperature to 350 F
roast another 10 to 15 minutes
until slightly golden

Served alongside warm and crusty No-knead Sourdough bread, your family and friends will beg for more.

No-Knead Sourdough Bread

2009-02-20T10:00:00.029-05:00

When I needed to get out of town last summer, we headed out to the Cape to stay with our friends, Bob and Jeanne. Bob has been baking bread for as long as I’ve known him, and I've known him a very long time, so he knows what he's doing and his sourdough loaves are a thing of beauty. When he offered me some of his starter, though, a red flag went up in my head. If you’ve ever had experience with sourdough, you know what I mean. It’s like coming home with a pet that must be fed and tended to and I wasn't sure I was up to the task. But Bob made bread making look so simple and effortless that I threw caution to the wind and accepted his gift.

Bob's boule, the object of my envy

The sourdough sat in its one quart Ball jar in the back of my refrigerator. Every couple of weeks I'd pull it out, scoop out a cup to use in one recipe or another, then feed it. I would add 3/4 cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water to the jar, mix it all together and leave it on the kitchen counter until it comes alive and starts to bubble, usually a couple of hours. Then I'd put it back in the refrigerator to hang out for another couple of weeks.

This went on for several months as I baked decent loaves of bread and made wonderful waffles for breakfast. Bob's beautiful crust and crumb eluded me, however, until I discovered the no-knead method of bread making made famous by Jim Lahey a few years back. I’ve adapted Jim's recipe to use sourdough instead of yeast, and the result is perfection itself. The process is insanely simple, with a bowl and a wooden spoon the dough comes together in two minutes flat, no fussy measuring, no kneading, with only a spoon to wash.

The loaves come out of the oven rustic and gorgeous every single time. Cut through the crispy, thin crust, and the inside is holey, light and chewy. I’ve made more than a dozen loaves over the last few weeks. I can’t seem to stop making it and my kitchen smells like a French bakery. So to those of you who’ve adopted my sourdough, you must make this bread, and to everyone else out there, get your hands on some sourdough, even if you have to beg or steal or, better yet, make your own starter. DO IT! It will make you happy.

Recipe for No-Knead Bread

In a large bowl, mix together

2 - 3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sourdough

1 cup water

3/4 TBS kosher salt

The dough should come together in a shaggy ball, sticky and wet. I let it rise in the same bowl that I mixed it in, mine came with a plastic lid that I put loosely over the top but a damp kitchen towel will also work. Let sit on the counter from 8 to 12 hours. I've left it for as long as 24. This is a very forgiving dough, I usually mix it up sometime during the day and leave it over night then shape and bake any time the next day.

Here's what the dough looks like after 12 hours or so.

Transfer onto a generously floured board, being careful not break the bubbles, gently shape into a ball. and let sit while oven is preheating. Put a heavy 5-quart dutch oven with its lid, side by side, in the oven, preheat to 500F. Any large, heavy pot will do, I've used Le Creuset and All Clad, both work very well.

When the oven is at 500F gently place the very soft dough into the pot. Don't worry about how it lands or how it looks, it'll still come out perfectly baked. Cover and bake 20 minute.

After 20 minutes, a pale crust forms.

Remove lid and continue baking another 20 to 30 minutes until deep golden.

Remove to a cooling rack and listen for the crackling sound the crust makes as it cools.

The Resulting Effect

2009-02-05T15:39:00.006-05:00

Tim gave his all with a little help from his friends....

Chinese Barbecue Chicken - a family favorite

Tim was quite disappointed when he first learned that his all time favorite food came from a jar. Nevertheless, when my sons were growing up, they're now 25 and 28, this chicken had a permanent spot in my rotation. I always made more than I needed. The chicken was great at room temperature, and could hold for that commuter who, on occasion, would miss his train. The leftovers were perfect for after school sandwiches and salads for the rest of the week.

I no longer have to worry about after school snacks, and the commuter no longer commutes. However, after being with Tim the last couple of weeks, I was nostalgic for those days when my two boys would come home from school and devour huge amounts of food, mostly because they were growing boys, but also so, they could wait to sit down and eat with the commuter, who was often the last one in the door. And the first to leave in the morning, I might add.

I hope you make this dish and find time to eat with your family. I would love to hear about what you did with your left over chicken. It's all about the left overs, you know. Here's how to do it, I dare not call this a recipe.

4 - 5 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, I prefer thighs rather than breasts, thighs are juicier and not so easy to overcook.
1 - 14 oz jar Lee Kum Kee Char Siu sauce
1 TBS soy sauce

Combine all three ingredients and marinate at least an hour or overnight in the fridge. Grill or bake in a 450 F oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, turning once. If baking, be sure to line baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easy clean up.

Serve with grilled vegetables and a mound of jasmine rice sprinkled with a few drops of Maggi Sauce. Enjoy.

A recipe for surviving the New Hampshire winter

2009-01-14T12:03:00.002-05:00

It's frightfully cold this morning, 7 degrees in the sun and it's predicted to get even colder for the next few days. Because winter can be so very long, the days so short and cabin fever a real threat, I get through the winter by surrounding myself with only the things that make me happy...

A plowed driveway

A shoveled path to the bird feeder

A nice pile of firewood just steps from the back door.

A patient kitty to remind me I'm not the only one waiting for spring.

Colorful yarn

Cymbidium orchid ready to bloom

A sunny corner office

A warm fire, a big stash of yarn, a pile of seed catalogs

Plenty of good friends...

...and good food....

...and more good friends...

Cheers!!!

Anne Michelle's Aunt's Pilgrim Ice Cream

2008-12-22T13:41:00.002-05:00

After a recent ice storm left us without electricity for several days, we found ourselves whiling away our time at a local restaurant, along with others who were also whiling away their time. In one conversation a friend recounted her fondness for her Aunt’s Pilgrim ice cream. She told me it was made with chunks of oranges, cranberries, and walnuts, mixed with sugar and sour cream, then put into the freezer to become semi frozen and served as a side dish.

I love family recipes, and this one intrigued me. I thought such a combination had to be good and so I set out to make my own version of Anne Michelle’s Aunt’s Pilgrim Ice Cream.

I started with three navel oranges, removed the zest and set it aside, peeled the oranges and cut them into rough chunks. I put the oranges in the bowl of a food processor along with the zest, one cup cranberries and half a cup walnuts.

I pulsed about five times, poured the whole thing into a large bowl, added 12 oz sour cream and 2/3 cups sugar. Mixed until sugar was dissolved.

Put the bowl in the freezer until semi frozen.

Served as a side dish

or as a light dessert.

This was super easy to make and turned out to be creamy, tart and sweet. The tartness of the cranberries, the freshness of the oranges and the nutty walnut came together to make a light, cleansing and addictive treat.

Fresh Garlic Soup

2008-12-11T08:49:00.004-05:00

A wintry mix

I found inspiration in my basket of garlic

Garlic is so easy to grow, it's a mystery to me why it's not more widely grown. Here in south western New Hampshire, I plant garlic the last week of October, just before the ground freezes. I save the biggest cloves from the summer's harvest for planting. I plant them four inches apart, one inch deep, in a raised bed filled with good garden soil, rich with compost. Cover the entire bed with three inches of hay, then I sit back and wait for spring. That's it! In spring, as soon as the ground thaws, the garlic starts growing without any help from me.

Garlic bed in early spring

They're ready to be picked when four bottom leaves turn yellow and start to brown. To harvest, I gently pull them out of the ground, brush off the extra soil and hang them in the garage to cure for winter storage.

I grow more than a hundred heads of garlic every year to share with friends and to make this fabulous soup. Plant some garlic next fall and you'll never look back.

Fresh Garlic Soup

I came up with this recipe a few years back when a bumper crop of fresh garlic sent me scurrying for ways to use garlic. This soup is quick and easy, comes together in an instant. Don't be afraid of the amount of garlic, it'll come out creamy, mellow and delicious. Like chicken soup, it's a cure for any winter colds. Enjoy it piping hot by the fire and you can almost ignore the wintry weather outside. Here's the recipe:

2 heads of garlic
4 cups of water
2 onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
6 sage leaves
4 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper

Separate the garlic into cloves, leave unpeeled. In a soup pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add garlic cloves and boil 8 minutes. Drain and peel the garlic cloves. Return them to the pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Boil gently uncovered, until garlic is meltingly soft, about ten minutes. Remove sage leaves and puree soup in a blender or food processor. Salt and pepper to taste. Served with warm crusty bread and salad, it makes a light comforting supper for two.

This is my first entry to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by
Chriesi of Almond Corner.

Coconut Custard

2008-11-26T08:25:00.002-05:00

As Thanksgiving approaches all thoughts are on food, and if you’re looking for something fun and different for your dessert table, try this coconut custard from my youth.

It’s made with coconut milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Traditionally the custard is steamed, but sometimes it's baked and, on very special occasion, it’s steamed inside a pumpkin. For the holidays, I like to steam the custard in Buttercup and Sweet Dumpling squashes. It’s always a hit and a good conversation piece for any holiday gathering.

Sweet Dumplings and Buttercup squash filled with coconut custard

Recipe:

13.5 oz can coconut milk

5 large eggs

1 cup sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp salt

2 buttercup squash, or four sweet dumplings, or a combination

Special equipment: Chinese bamboo steamer or other steamer

Make custard:

In a blender mix the first five ingredients until smooth, set aside.

To steam in squash containers: slice off the top quarter of squash to make a lid, put in steamer. Hollow out the seeds from the squash bottom, wrap it in foil and put in the steamer.

Wrapping the squash in foil prevents it from cracking

Pour custard into squash, fill it to about 1/4" from the top, steam, covered, until squash is tender and custard is firm, about an hour to an hour and half, depending on the size of the squash. Cool and refrigerate until ready to serve. Slice and serve at room temperature.

To bake: pour custard into a 9.5 x 13.5 x 2 inch pan and bake in 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the middle is firm. Cool and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut into squares and serve at room temperature.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Colorful fall greens

2008-11-14T09:49:00.010-05:00

With just a bit of coddling, beautiful greens still linger in my southern New Hampshire garden.

Chinese cabbage and baby beets

Kale and escarole under row cover

Swiss chard and arugula

Bright Light Swiss chard is as tasty as it is beautiful. In the garden it grows easily and abundantly, and need only to be picked to keep it producing. I harvest it by the armloads from early summer to late fall. Both leaves and stems are edible but I prefer only the leaves and the stems get composted.

Here are two never fail Swiss chard recipes.

Sautéed Swiss Chard with Garlic and Oyster Sauce

3 lbs Swiss chard, leaves coarsely shredded, stems discarded

3 Tbs olive oil

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbs oyster sauce

Heat oil and garlic in a large heavy pot over medium heat, add salt and pepper. When garlic turns slightly golden add chard leaves in batches, stirring until wilted before adding next batch and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a serving bowl, toss with oyster sauce and serve. Makes 8 servings.

This chard ball recipe is adapted from an old spinach ball recipe. Whether you make them with spinach or Swiss chard the accolades will be the same, and will leave your guests begging for more.

Chard Balls with Hot and Sweet Mustard

4 cups cooked Swiss chard, squeezed dry, or 2 10 oz packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry.

2 cups herb stuffing mix, crushed

1 cup grated parmesan cheese (5 oz wedge)

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

5 scallions, finely chopped

3 eggs

Dash of freshly grated nutmeg

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Shape into 1 inch balls. Cover and refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set balls on ungreased baking sheet and bake until golden brown about 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with Hot and Sweet Mustard.

Makes about 50 balls

Hot and Sweet Mustard

½ cup Coleman dry mustard

½ cup white vinegar

¼ cup sugar

1 egg yolk

Combine mustard and vinegar, cover and let stand at room temperature 4 hours.

Mix sugar and egg yolk in small sauce pan. Add mustard and vinegar mixture and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened. Cover and chill. Serve at room temperature.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad

2008-09-14T09:40:00.004-04:00

In the early 60’s the streets of Vientiane were flooded with Vietnamese refugees escaping American bombs. The refugees took to the streets selling food from their home country. Some vendors pushed carts laden with freshly cooked food, while others balanced a long bamboo pole across one shoulder, two round baskets at either end, swaying left and right seemingly weightless. All kinds of food paraded through the streets this way, bells ringing, horns blowing and hawkers shouting their offerings, all vying for attention.

There were exotic sweet and savory morsels wrapped in banana leaves…chunks of ripe papaya and sugar cane piled high over blocks of ice…sticky rice with mangoes …sticky rice with ice cream…fresh and fried spring rolls…Warm and cold salads…iced coffee laced with sweet condensed milk…Silken tofu in soothing ginger syrup… and the list goes on.

It was in this environment of casual eating that I discovered Vietnamese food, and became forever enamored with street food. I was especially fond of bo boon, a one dish meal with rice noodles mixed with salad greens, tossed in a spicy fish sauce, topped with warm curried beef, and sprinkled with peanuts. This is my version of that dish from long ago. It's comfort food in our family and I make it most often in the summer when my garden overflows with all kinds of greens that can go into this salad. It's the ultimate street food and it takes me home.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad
1 lb Japanese somen noodles

1 – 1 ½ lb flank steak, cut in half length wise, thinly sliced across the grain
1 large onion, cut in half length wise, thinly sliced
3 TBS canola oil
2 TBS fish sauce
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tsp curry powder
Fresh ground black pepper

12 lettuce leaves, coarsely shredded
1 cup mint leaaves, roughly chopped
1 cup coriander, roughly chopped
I medium cucumber, lightly peeled, cut in half lengthwise, thinly sliced into half moons
2 cups bean sprouts

Spicy Fish Sauce (recipe below)
2/3 cup coarsely ground dry roasted peanuts.
Chili peppers for garnish, if you like heat

Cook somen noodles in salted boiling waterfor 2-3 minutes. Strain and rinse with cold water. Drain well and put in a platter, ccover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Combine beef with fish sauce, 2 tsp curry powder and black pepper in a bowl and marinate until ready to use.

In a large salad bowl combine lettuce, mint, coriander, cucumbers and bean sprouts, toss gently. Divide vegetables among 4 to 6 pasta bowls. Top the vegetables with a handful of noodles, set aside until ready to use. Everything up to this point can be made three hours ahead.
When ready to serve, heat oil, over medium heat, in a large skillet. Add onions and garlic, stir fry until fragrant and onion is tender. Add the rest of curry powder and stir fry another minute. Add the beef and stir fry over high heat one to two minutes, to your desired doneness. I like mine a little pink in the middle. Divide beef among the bowls of noodles. Top each with ground peanuts. Pass the fish sauce at the table. Diners should add a generous amount of fish sauce to their bowl and toss everything together, adding sauce and hot pepper to taste.
4 to 6 servings.

Spicy Fish Sauce with Peanuts
½ hot water
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup fish sauce
1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
2 TBS dry roasted peanuts , ground
Hot chiles to taste, thinly sliced
Mix all ingredients, except peanuts and chiles, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Garnish with peanuts and chiles before serving. Makes 1 ¼ cup.

My garden in September

2008-09-04T15:28:00.003-04:00

Morning fog rolling in from the Connecticut River

While tomatoes are waning, wonderful swiss chard will keep on producing until first frost. Fall lettuce, successively planted, will keep our salad bowls filled through the shortened days of fall.

Keep zucchinis picked and pick them small. Tiny zucchinis are more tender, crisper and sweeter than the great big ones that got away. I pick mine between six and ten inches.

Hungarian Wax peppers

These yellow Hungarian Wax peppers have a permanent place in my garden, I just love them. They're quick and easy to grow and produce an abundance of mildly hot peppers. I use them instead of bell peppers. They have just the right amount of heat with a hint of sweetness and freeze beautifully. To freeze, I cut them into half inch rings and pop them into one gallon freezer bags. All winter long I grab a handful and add them to soups, stews and stir fries.

Just as quickly, they can be pickled. Fill pint or quart jars with sliced peppers, cover with distilled vinegar and seal. They keep all winter long in my pantry and are great on nachos and anywhere you like a little heat.

Hot stash

No vampires here!

Wild mushrooms

2008-08-27T15:35:00.004-04:00

Chantarelle and Oyster mushrooms found on my walk yesterday.

It was my lucky day to stumble upon these gifts from the woods, I practically skipped home to spend the morning washing, cleaning, and every now and then, sniffing them. I was in mushroom heaven. All the while planning how to best use this windfall.

I settled on my old standby, I seem to always turn to this recipe when I have more mushrooms than I know what to do with. It's sinfully yummy, doubles easily and freezes well.

Wild mushrooms with garlic

1 TBS olive oil
1TBS butter
1 pound assorted wild mushrooms, shredded
3 large cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
A dash of Maggi Sauce
Salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large, cast iron skillet over high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until slightly brown and not too dry. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add white wine and cook until evaporated, about 1 minute (at this point taste the mushrooms, if they’re not tender add a little water, continue to cook a little longer until done. Add cream and cilantro; stir until sauce coats mushrooms, about 1 minute, season to taste with salt, pepper and a dash of Maggie sauce. Serve on toast. Any leftovers can be folded inside an omelet, added to fried rice, or tossed with pasta. Makes 6 servings.

A new beginning

2008-08-18T14:51:00.004-04:00

Once in while life throws us a curve ball and we get a chance to reinvent ourselves, but too often when this happens we’re afraid because usually we’re put in this situation not of our own choosing. So we’re afraid, afraid of the unknown. I’m afraid, but I will ride the fear and know that I will arrive safely on the other side. Be in the moment I remind myself. At this moment my mind wonders about all the possibilities. One thought that won’t go away is---Should I do the farmers' market? I’m not eager to do the market again, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I’ll have to come up with a different product so I wouldn’t feel like I was going back to something old and stale. It’ll have to feel new, fun and exciting. Not much to ask, but maybe if you don’t ask you don’t get.
People love the spring rolls and I can sell them as fast as I can make them but I’m so tired of making them, it’s like Billy Joel having to sing Uptown Girl over and over again. So I need a new angle on the food. I want my new food to be mostly local ingredients and organic.
Here’s the spring roll recipe for you to try and see what the fuss is all about.

Spring rolls with Chicken sate at Bellows Falls Farmers' Market

Everybody’s Favorite Spring Rolls

Filling:
1 lb ground pork
¼ lbs onions, chopped
¾ lbs carrots, grated
¼ lbs. bean sprouts
1-8 oz can water chestnut chopped
2 TBS oyster sauce
2 TBS dried cloud ears, soaked in water until soft and chopped
50 grams cellophane noodles, soaked and cut into short lengths
2 eggs

1 lb package rice paper

Peanut oil or canola oil for frying

Mix all ingredients together except rice paper and oil. Immerse a sheet of rice paper in warm water and immediately put on damp kitchen towel, repeat until you have five sheets of rice paper between damp towels stacked one on top of the other. Flip over so the first sheet of rice paper is on top. At this point the rice paper should be perfectly hydrated and pliable.

Center about 2 TBS filling mixture on the bottom 2/3 of the paper, leaving 2” border. Fold in the right then the left edges over the filling, roll to top edge, wet rice paper will stick to itself forming a tight seal. Transfer seam side down onto a platter.

When all the filling have been rolled, deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with spicy fish sauce. .Makes 30 to 35 spring rolls.

This recipe doubles easily and cooked spring rolls can be frozen. Reheat directly from the freezer, in 450 degrees oven until deep brown and crunchy.

Spicy fish sauce with peanuts

½ hot water
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup fish sauce
1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
2 TBS dry roasted peanuts , ground
Hot chiles to taste, thinly sliced

Mix all ingredients, except peanuts and chiles, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Garnish with peanuts and chiles before serving. Makes 1 ¼ cup.

This sauce can be doubled or tripled and refrigerated will keep almost indefinitely. I always have it around. It’s good on a lot of Asian salads and for dipping dumplings and such. More on this handy sauce in future posts.

Let me know what you think of these spring rolls and would love to hear about your experiences making them.

Playing with Food

Wilson Farm, Lexington, MA

Lao Food: Tum Maak Houng or Green Papaya Salad

Easy 7-Layer Salad

Homemade Pork Rind - "Kiep Moo"

October Snow

Roasted Salmon with Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime

Harvesting Grapes in New Hampshire

What's Growing in the Garden: 9/23/2011

Just Peachy

2 cups peeled, chopped fresh ripe peaches1/2 cup mango juice1/3 cup sugar2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Lao Food: Padek

Sticky Rice with Mango

Maple Sesame Noodles

Lao Food: Sticky Rice

Hibernating in the Kitchen

Party food

Peace

Garlic Potato Soup

Crispy Kale Snack

Travelling Harvest

Save the Fruits of Summer

Sweet and Sour Cucumber

My Garden: Wild and Weedy

Lao Food Festival

Jalapeno-Onion Relish, Fast and Flexible

Around the Garden

Garlic Scapes - Another Seasonal Delight

What to do with Bolting Onions

Pucker Up, it's time to cook with rhubarb

What's Growing in the Garden 5/26/09

Green Garlic: a culimary treat

Homemade Naan, It's Easy and Fun

Beef with Asparagus

What's Growing in the Garden

Instant Tamale

Is it Gin or is it Vodka?

Deviled Eggs with Chives

What's Growing in the Garden

Spring Roll Lettuce Wrap

Zucchini Bread for Knitting Foodies

Snow Day Sourdough Waffles

How to Make Maple Syrup

Slow Roasted Garlic with Rosemary

No-Knead Sourdough Bread

The Resulting Effect

A recipe for surviving the New Hampshire winter

Anne Michelle's Aunt's Pilgrim Ice Cream

Fresh Garlic Soup

Coconut Custard

Colorful fall greens

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad

My garden in September

Wild mushrooms

A new beginning

2 cups peeled, chopped fresh ripe peaches
1/2 cup mango juice
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch