Butterscotch Pudding

This is a sweet use for those leftover egg yolks from the macaroon recipe. Maybe I ate too many pre-packaged butterscotch pudding cups in my younger years, and without that annato colorant, my butterscotch pudding just didn't come out as dark burnt orange as manufacturers would like you to believe this pudding is colored. I also used light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar because it's what I had on hand. The pudding came out lumpier than I thought it would even though I put it through a fine mesh sieve before refrigeration. An electric hand mixer with a balloon whisk might have removed the lumps a bit better.

Ingredients

3 c. whole milk
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/8 tsp sea salt

4 large egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

1. In a large heatproof bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and egg yolks. Then whisk in 1/2 cup of milk until combined.

2. In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat remaining 2.5 cups of milk until it comes to a boil. Turn off heat.

3. A soup ladle at a time, add the heated milk to the egg mixture while whisking. This will gradually bring the heat up in the egg mixture and the eggs won't curdle. Whisk to incorporate the remaining heated milk.

If the eggs curdle, you're better off scrapping the entire recipe or making french toast out of the remaining ingredients because curdled egg pudding does not taste all that good. Yes, I have done this before and it tastes very eggy.

4. Transfer the milk-egg mixture into a clean heavy-bottomed pan. I used the same pan that milk was cooked in, except I washed it first. Well, I only have one pan that can do this. Cook on low-medium heat, whisking constantly, until the pudding reaches a consistency akin to mayonnaise. Remove from heat.

5. Whisk in unsalted butter until melted and combined. Whisk in vanilla extract.

6. (optional) If lumps formed while cooking, pour pudding through a fine mesh strainer.

7. Put pudding into one large glass serving bowl, smaller serving bowls, or into dessert cups and cover pudding surface with plastic wrap if you don't want a skin to form on the top. The pudding can be eaten warm or chilled.

Almond Pudding with Coconut

I thought I was being terribly clever by using the uneaten coconut macaroons as a crust for the bottom of this pudding. Alas, the principles of physics were working against me. I really thought that a heavy "cookie" would stay at the bottom, but alas, the broken bits of the macaroons started floating everywhere in the thickened pudding when I poured it into a glass serving bowl.

You'll note that the ingredient ratio is awfully similar to the quick and easy stovetop method for making vanilla pudding. That is because the only ingredient swapped out is the extract, using almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Maybe the recipe's title really should be Coconut Almond Pudding. Even that is a misnomer since there are no almonds in the dessert and there is, by weight, more coconut than almond extract in it.

Ingredients

2 c. whole milk

1/2 c. unbleached granuated sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp unsalted butter

6 coconut macaroons, crumbled

Directions

1. In a pot, bring milk to a near simmer over medium heat where bubbles start to form at the edges.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Gradually add dry ingredients to the milk and whisk to keep clumps from forming.

3. Cook pudding until it has thickened. It should be able to coat the back of a spoon and not drip off that quickly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and almond extract.

4. Add crumbled coconut macaroons to the bottom of a serving dish (I used a 1-qt glass serving bowl for this). Pour pudding on top. Let cool in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

The pudding by itself tastes like I had imagined it to taste like.. a milk-based pudding with the flavor of almond. It'll be interesting when the pudding has cooled to see what the addition of another dessert component tastes like.

Bay Scallops with Garlic Basil

Unless you live in a tropical place, like Hawaii or Florida, everywhere else it's the dead of Winter. I suppose that the basil aroma would be fantastic if fresh basil were available, but it is a vibrant spring to summer-time herb. Using dried basil doesn't make the dish all that colorific and even after cooking, the dried basil just barely looks like bits of dark green. This is a two-part dish and noodle complement is prepared separately. I don't think scallops taste as good with steamed brown rice, so, I used soba (buckwheat) noodles.


Even after the scallops are drained before cooking, they release a lot of liquid. I'd estimate that half the volume of a scallop is water since that's the size they come out to be after cooking. In retrospect, I added the garlic-basil sauce during the cooking stage and it could very well have been mixed in after the scallops were removed from the skillet. I use the word skillet loosely since the cookware used for this dish isn't a skillet at all but a casserole baking dish. I like Cuisinart for its all stainless-steel construction and it can go stove top to oven without much consideration. Anyhow, back to the recipe

Bay scallops and buckwheat noodles

Ingredients
1 lb medium bay scallops, drained
1 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)


Garlic Basil Sauce
1 tbsp EVOO
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried basil


Directions
1. Heat olive oil in skillet until the oil begins to spread fluidly. Add scallops and fry until they are no longer pink, no more than 2-3 minutes per side. Scallops shouldn't be overcooked. Use a slotted spoon to remove scallops to a plate or bowl.
2. Mix cooked scallops with garlic basil sauce until combined.
3. In the same skillet, add enough water to accommodate noodle servings. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Add soba noodles and cook according to package directions.
4. Remove noodles from cooking liquid and toss with a serving of scallops.
At this point, the dish is done. I reserved the cooking liquid to do something else, perhaps as the base for brown rice congee.

Coconut Macaroons

Wikipedia says that the English word macaroon and French macaron come from the Italian maccarone or maccherone. This word is itself derived from ammaccare, meaning crush or beat, used here in reference to the almond paste which is the principal ingredient. Most recipes call for egg whites (usually whipped to stiff peaks), with ground or powdered nuts, generally almond or coconut.

This is one of my favorite confections that I have always enjoyed, usually around Passover when supermarkets tend to carry them fresh and kosher. I suppose that the eggs and coconut were humanely slaughtered and/or blessed before being processed into ingredients. This is not a gluten-free food, if all-purpose flour or matzo cake meal is used to firm up the cookie. I like my macaroons to have substance, so this recipe uses flour.

Ingredients

1 c. egg whites (about 4 large eggs, reserve yolks for another recipe)
1/2 c. unbleached granulated sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1/3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
pinch of salt (no more than 1/8 or 1/4 tsp)
14 oz (1 bag) of sweetened shredded coconut

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

1. Carefully separate the egg whites from egg yolks. I used two prep bowls for this step.
2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form and add almond extract. Whisk to incorporate flour mixture until a "dough" forms.
4. Stir in shredded coconut until it's even distributed.
5. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (makes approx 2 dozen) or rounded tablespoonfuls (makes 18-20) onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray.
6. Bake for 20 minutes until the edges of the macaroons are lightly browned. Let cookies cool on a wire rack.

Kitchen Note: Squid

Here's a first for the year. I prepared and made a squid dish. No seriously, I never made squid before today. It was the random shopping ingredient for December.

The quality of fresh squid, like most seafood, is easy to tell from visual and olfactory cues. It shouldn't have a strong nor fishy smell, be firm and shiny, and its outer membrane should be gray in color, not pink or purple. That is, of course, if you are using fresh squid. I suppose that at some point my squid was fresh. Since I didn't use it the same day I bought it, the squid had characteristics of not-so-fresh squid, as in I left it in the freezer for about a month then thawed it before preparation.

Preparing whole squid is a lot like shelling sunflower seeds: lots of effort, little reward. To put it bluntly, the only parts of the squid that is used in cooking are the tentacles and mantle (the skin, aka the tube). Just about everything else (head, guts, the hard beak, ink sack, cuttlebone) is removed and discarded. I didn't notice the ink sack when I prepared the squid. Squid ink is edible and is often used to add color to pasta, such as black linguini.

To make the calamari-shaped rings, cut the squid body into bite-sized pieces, horizontally. Here are other ways of preparing squid.

Squid can get tough if it's overcooked, so if you plan to fry it, do so on high heat with the pan already warmed up. I used 2 tbsp of olive oil for frying and added the squid just as the oil was able to spread across the pan easily. Probably no more than 5 mins for frying. Then remove it from the heat and plate it up.

The best tasting fried squid is how my folks make it--with chopped chives from their garden.

Kitchen Note: Canned Tuna

Canned tuna is pretty cheap and you're better off paying a bit more for Tongol. Not all canned tuna is the same. And according to an article on Epicurious.com, "canned tuna meat should be firm and flaky, but never mushy. It should be moist but not watery (and certainly not dry). And it has to look appetizing before it's dressed up with seductive ingredients."

I use no salt added and packed in water for my cooking recipes to have better control over the salt and fat in the dish being prepared. I don't eat canned tuna that often, maybe 2-3 cans a year. That's mostly because I really enjoy raw tuna as sushi or sashimi.

The usual additive options are:

no salt added
salt added
vegetable oil added, usually safflower
olive oil added

The amount of vegetable or olive oil added to a can of tuna is trivial. You're better off buying the tuna that's been canned in water, drain it, and add one teaspoon of olive oil. That's the caloric difference between tuna canned in water vs tuna canned in olive oil. One tablespoon of olive oil has 120 calories, or roughly 40 calories per teaspoon.

Depending on the species, tuna is used in different product forms:

• albacore is primarily sold as white canned tuna
• skipjack is primarily sold as light canned tuna
• tongol is primarily sold as light canned tuna
• yellowfin is sold both as light canned tuna and as ahi
• bigeye is primarily used in sushi/sashimi, but also is sold as canned light

Recipes using canned Tongol:
Tuna Casserole
Tuna Salad Sandwich

Read more:
Seafood Watch: Sourcing Sustainable Canned Tuna
Epicurious Taste Test: Canned Tuna
Download a regional Seafood Watch guide
NRDC List of How Often to Eat Tuna

Tuna Casserole

The Food Timeline tells us that:

"The word 'casserole' has two meanings: a recipe for a combination of foods cooked together in a slow over and the dish/pot used for cooking it. Casserole, as a cooking method, seems to have derived from the ancient practice of slowly stewing meat in earthenware containers. Medieval pies are also related, in that pastry was used as a receptacle for slowly cooking sweet and savory fillings. Early 18th century casserole recipes [the word entered the English language in 1708] typically employed rice which was pounded and pressed (similar to the pastry used for pies) to encase fillings. Like their Medieval ancestors, they were both savory and sweet. The casseroles we know today are a relatively modern invention."

Tuna casserole. There, now I can say I made it.

The traditional tuna casserole calls for egg noodles, of which I had none on hand. Brown rice fusilli was used instead since this type of noodle can hold up to both boiling and baking in the same recipe. The thought of adding a can of creamed mushroom soup to a casserole is appalling to me. I don't think I've had canned mushroom soup since I was a child and I'm more inclined to make it from scratch if I had to. There are three parts to this recipe: the sauce, the noodles, and the baking. Start by cooking the noodles first since they take the longest to prepare.

You could use any type of mushroom in a casserole. I had dried oyster mushrooms that had been in my pantry for almost a year so I used those. Rehydrated in water and the water (without the mushrooms) added to the pot of water to cook the noodles. The same goes for the shredded cheese. I used mozzarella, but you can easily use cheddar, jack, or colby.

The addition of olive oil to the boiling noodles is an optional step. I had about that much leftover from an appetizer I did earlier in the day. The tuna can is from Trader Joe's and it's tongol in water with no salt added. I didn't think about salt until I tasted the sauce. Hardly any of the ingredients used actually have salt in it, except for the trace amount in the cheese. I sprinklled some sea salt on top of the casserole before adding the last of the cheese.

Ingredients

2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
One 6.5 oz can of tuna, drained
One red bell pepper, diced
1 c. oyster mushrooms, chopped
1-2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese, separated
sea salt, to taste

1 c. whole organic milk
2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 c. dried fusilli
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pot of water

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

1. In a pot, add enough water to dried fusilli and boil until noodles are tender. Add olive oil. About 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. In a 8" skillet, on medium heat, melt butter and fry bellpepper and oyster mushrooms until soft. Add flour and stir until combined. Add milk and stir (or whisk) until the sauce thickens. Turn off heat and stir in one cup of shredded cheese. Set aside.

3. In an 8" x 8" baking dish, add cooked fusilli and tuna. Break up the larger chunks of tuna into smaller pieces, if necessary. Add the sauce on top of it and stir until the sauce is evenly distributed.

4. Sprinkle sea salt on top of casserole then add the remaining cheese (up to one cup) on top of the casserole. While it melts and browns, it also makes a tasty crust.

5. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.

Makes 2-3 servings.

Pumpkin Muffins

I suppose I could have made pumpkin tartlets with the leftover canned pumpkin from when I made the biscotti. It would have meant actually calculating how much tart crust to make. I just wanted something sweet and easy to nibble on. These won't win any bake contests, but they're easy to make and when they're warm, the muffins are pretty good on a cold, breezy weekend. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each ground cloves, ground nutmeg, ground ginger

1 c. cooked pumpkin
2 eggs
1/3 c. olive oil

For this batch, I used the entire leftover can of pumpkin which was roughly 11 oz (from a 15 oz can).

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together so that the spices are evenly disbursed.

2. Stir in pumpkin and eggs until the mixture neither looks runny nor like there's egg white everywhere.

3. Fill prepared muffin tin (either use paper muffin cups or lightly butter the muffin pan) so that each muffin opening is 3/4 full.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until they look done. Let cool on a rack.

This batch didn't get to cool and I'd already eaten two of the muffins before remembering to take photos, which eventually will get posted.

Kitchen Note: Moonfish

This fish, a random shopping cart item at Fubonn, gets its name from having a whitish, almost opalescent sheen to its rather smooth skin. Because of its thin frame and lack of exterior armaments (scales, spines), one would assume this is a fish found in tropical or temperate waters. It actually looks like something one might find in an exotic aquarium. But, nonetheless, I found it in the freezer aisle at the Asian grocery store.

The fish would probably taste great skewered and roasted over an open fire. It has lots of small bones and there isn't a whole lot of meat to it. Eating it reminded me of perch, an equally bony fish that is the equivalent of a sunflower seed (lots of work, little reward). I've only cooked up the first of the two that came in the pack and it tastes ordinary, like the "white fish" you'd find in a breaded, fried fish fillet.

I braised (poached?) it in some olive oil and Chinese rice wine with a sprinkling of Himalayan pink salt. That was probably not the right approach for the fish. It might have been better to bake or steam it because the skin stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Ahh, what to do with its companion...

[Updated: 12/2/2010] When this fish cooks, it smells a lot like the "fish powder" condiment (not furikake) that is used on Chinese rice porridge (xi fan, also known as congee). For the second fish, I cooked it over rice in the oven. In retrospect, I think that moonfish would make a great fish stock type of fish because it's very bony and with the right mix of spices and salt, you'd get a very flavorful broth out of it.

I made the brown basmati rice (a long grain) the way Alton Brown does, heated in a foil-covered baking dish at 375 degrees F for about an hour. Because I am cooking for one, I don't really like reheating leftover rice, so I try to minimize it to a meal or two.

In my pantry, I have Mexican saffron which is several iterations cheaper than real Spanish saffron (from Spain). I picked up a few ounces of it several years ago, probably from hole-in-the-wall spice shops in California.

1 c. brown basmati rice
1 1/2 c. water
pinch of saffron
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp sea salt

In a small saucepan, bring water, saffron, butter and salt to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over rice in a baking dish.

Wash the moonfish and gently place on top of the rice. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for an hour. The essence from the fish adds a nice layer of depth to the rice that makes it more flavorful.

If you have sweet potatoes on hand, these bake in the same amount of time at the same heat setting as the rice.

I made a special sauce for the fish, which is a variant on the soba noodle sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
2 tsp brown sugar
1 clove of garlic, minced

Bring ingredients to a simmer for about two minutes (long enough to infuse the sauce with garlic flavor) and pour over fish.

Cornbread for T-day Stuffing

This cornbread recipe comes from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food ("Cornbread No Chaser") and has been only just slightly tweaked. I lowered the required heat, muckied about with the ingredients and order of operations.

What better way to stuff a bird than to use a somewhat, but not really traditionally bread for stuffing? For this year's Straggler's Thanksgiving hosted by my more adventurous cooking sibling, we used cornbread as the bread base for stuffing the bird. Here is the recipe for it the cornbread. I suppose it could be eaten as is.

Crumbled bits of cornbread for turkey stuffing

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. cornmeal, medium grind (stoneground)
1 1/4 c. whole organic milk, heated to a simmer
1 c. unbleached wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp coarse salt (because it was what was on hand at the time)
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 large eggs
1/4 c. fresh or frozen cooked corn kernels, thawed and drained (optional)
1 tbsp unsalted butter

One 10" cast iron skillet

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and leave skillet in oven while mixing the cornbread.

1. In a small saucepan, heat milk until almost boiling. Remove from heat and stir in cornmeal. It's not all that important to let it sit in the milk for Alton's recommended 15 minutes since the cornbread isn't the final product output.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder.

3. In a smaller bowl, beat together oil and eggs.

4. Add the smaller bowl to the larger bowl and add the cornmeal/milk mixture. Mix until well combined. It won't be smooth nor runny and you'll have to spread it around in the skillet before it bakes.

5. Remove skillet from oven (with oven mitts!) and melt 1 tbsp butter in the skillet.

6. Empty cornmeal mixture into skillet and spread around with a spatula until the surface looks nearly even. Neatness does not count since you'll be crumbling this later after it cools.

7. Bake for 25 minutes, or until top is lightly golden brown.

Try to not eat this before it's made into stuffing or you'll have to make more cornbread. I made two batches of this for a 15# turkey.

Pumpkin Cranberry Biscotti

This isn't the cookie-like Americanized textured biscotti that Trader Joes has; this "cookie" is rather hard and is best dipping it with hot tea or coffee. It's a pretty simple recipe with simple ingredients and simple steps. It's certainly different than the super sweet treats that are typically made for T-day weekend.


Ingredients

3 c. unbleached wheat flour
1 c. brown sugar, packed
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (see below)
1/2 c. cooked pumpkin, fresh or canned
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 c. dried sweetened cranberries
1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp butter, melted (optional)

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Lots of websites and cookbooks give different ratios for this spice blend. This blend works for pies and cookies.

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.

2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and melted butter.

3. Add in pumpkin seeds and cranberries. Mix together wet with dry ingredients until well combined.

4. Take a large glob of dough and shape it into a log. Flatten it on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. The "logs" should be about 3-4" wide (this will become the length of the finished cookie) and no longer than 12" long (so all the dough will fit on one baking sheet). 

Unbaked "logs" of biscotti

The dough logs should not be touching each other as the baking powder will cause the biscotti to rise slightly. Bake for 25 minutes and remove when logs are slightly browned on top.

Slice logs diagonally (?) using a very sharp knife or serrated knife, the latter will cause tears in the dough if you rush cutting these.

5. Place slices cut-side down onto the same parchment-lined baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes or until dry. Can let cool in oven on the baking sheet or removed to cool on a wire rack.

Biscotti ready for second baking session

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

I'm not terribly fond of nuts in my cookies, nor of white chocolate. This particular cookie is a friend's favorite and I made it for him. I had a pretty good idea what the ingredients tasted like, but never actually had eaten the cookie before. So yes, this is another one of those recipes made with some degree of success without much tasting context. It's basically a sugar cookie with nuts and white chocolate mixed in, what could possibly go wrong?

Ingredients

1 c. unsalted butter, melted (2 sticks)
1 c. unbleached granulated sugar
1 c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, room temperature
1-2 tsp vanilla extract

3 c. unbleached white flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

2 c. white chocolate chips
1 1/2 c. Macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. If you are making this batch in winter, you might find that waiting for the butter to soften is an exercise in Zen cooking; you could melt the butter in a small saucepan and let the butter cool to room temperature before mixing it with the sugar. Cream butter and sugars together in a mixing bowl.

2. Add an egg, one at a time, and beat well. Add vanilla extract and beat again until well combined.

3. In a separate bowl, add flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir to combine.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until the flour is incorporated. Add white chocolate chips and nuts to mixture and mix until ingredients are evenly distributed.

5. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

7. Cool on a wire rack before gifting or serving.

Kitchen Note: Crackers

This post is part of a series of cracker recipes gone horribly wrong. I've been trying to replicate a style of flatbread crackers that Trader Joe's carries, the multi-seed flatbread crackers, which are very tasty and get eaten too quickly. The ingredients are pretty simple, just flour, water, and salt. Since all my cracker endeavors had been turning out inedible, I thought I'd try this particular recipe which is known to be hardly edible. The flour-water ratio in it is 2:1, unlike matzo dough that is 3:1 and prepared in 18 minutes or less.



2 c. unbleached white flour

1 c. water (with 1-2 tsp salt added to the water)

1. Mix the flour with the salted water until the flour just comes together. You might not even need the entire cup of water.



2. Knead it into a random shape and roll it out to 1/2" thick on parchment paper.



3. Cut into squares, rectangles, dodecahedrons or whatever shape you prefer your crackers to be in. You could probably use cookie cutters too.

4. Use fork tines to prick holes (but don't pierce the dough) across all the crackers. This is to keep the dough from rising.



5. Transfer the parchment paper (with the crackers on top) to a baking sheet.

6. Bake for 40 minutes or until the tops/edges are golden brown. Let cool in oven. The drier the cracker, the more cracker-like it will be.

 

In retrospect, using a pasta machine or rolling the crackers out to a much thinner thickness would be better. Once these crackers really dry out, they are brick-like hard. This is probably why matzo crackers are rolled out to a 1/8" to 1/4" thickness.

Hearty Tomato Bean Soup

This recipe is not that bad now that tomato sauce has been added to it. The tomato adds another layer of depth to this dish and helps to balance out the flavors. This recipe was formerly known as the baked beans recipe on this blog and revised the directions to include crockpot instructions.
Ingredients

1 c. white beans, soaked overnight and drained
1/4 c. red azuki beans
1/3 c. green mung beans
1/4 c. brown basmati rice
2 bacon slices, diced
3 tbsp honey
4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz organic tomato sauce
1 qt low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground thyme
salt (optional)

Directions

1. In a bowl large enough to accommodate the beans, cover beans with enough water so that there is about 1/2" of water above the beans. Let soak for a few hours or overnight. Drain beans and add to a crockpot.

2. In a small skillet, cook diced bacon until browned and add bacon to crockpot.

3. Add honey, dry mustard, salt (optional), pepper, oregano, thyme and garlic.

4. Add chicken broth. Soup can be thinned out with water if necessary.

5. Depending on what meal of the day this is for, set crockpot on high-6hrs or low-8hrs. The beans should be fork-tender in a couple hours.

6. Blend cooked ingredients together in a blender or with an immersion blender.

Serves many.

Kitchen Note: Chocolate

Chocolate, as we know it today, is being faced by two equally disturbing debates. The first, like crude oil, is the rise in the price of raw cacao because one man is bidding up commodity futures of chocolate. So far he owns more than $1 billion worth of cocoa futures on the open market with the intent on dominating the market.. as in hoarding all the future supply.


The second regards the proposed change in the FDA's definition of the identity of milk chocolate. Basically the recipe includes ingredients like sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate liquor, milk, cocoa butter, vanilla, etc. US dominates with the gold standard of chocolate with production, consumers, and distribution. It is why chocolatiers like See's Candies (who uses Guittard) can sell chocolate confections at a premium. But, some greedy, penny pinching bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers who say they can't compete against Europe's deviation from the gold standard who want to reduce or eliminate the cocoa butter manufacturing requirement and replace it with say.. up to 95% of non-cocoa butter oils. The primary instigator in this lawsuit is Hersheys, who would benefit more hand-over-fist profit if the gold standard of chocolate were say muckied up this with vegetable fats. I wouldn't be surprised if Mars has also lobbied with Hersheys. Though, companies like E. Guittard and Scharffen Berger less likely to stray from how they make chocolate. What is unfortunate about chocolate manufacturing is when a company that started from a family-run business like Scharffen Berger ends up getting bought by a large conglomerate. Lately all the acquisitions in this market have been done by Kraft Foods (acquired Cadbury) and Hersheys (acquired Sharffen Berger, makes the chocolate for Cadbury, also makes the chocolate for Rolo). It's so sad because Sharffen Berger is really, really good eating and baking chocolate. Don't get me started on how inferior the Baker's Square chocolate is.

In comparison, European chocolate manufacturers only allow up to 5% non-cocoa butter fats in their chocolate confections.

Artificial shortages are possible, but an actual crop shortage would be diluted because it isn't just grown in Central and South America, but also in Malaysia and South Africa. The cacao bean harvest in Hawaii is insignifiant, but the climate is right. Then it depends on what people want to eat. Single origin or blended chocolates (E. Guittard uses single origin to make blended chocolates). On the whole, cocoa prices aren't a lot less than what they were at the same time last year, and manufactured chocolate doesn't have a very long shelf life.

Read more?

Cocoa commodity charts

Mystery Ingredient: Moonfish

There are a few peculiar things I like to do when I visit an asian grocery store. Number one is always have a shopping list. This tells you what the pantry is out of and keeps you on track. Because I had been paying more attention to what I bought, I added two new rules to shopping this year. The first is, if the shopping list has been adhered to, a luxury good is allowed. Today's luxury good were persimmons, the crunchy-when-ripe kind. The second is, if feeling adventurous, then choose a mystery ingredient to make a new dish out of. The mystery is the discovery and creativity of how to cook an unknown. This is a great skill in case you were traveling with Jules Verne in 20,000 leagues under the sea or to the center of the earth and had to cook up a dinosaur. It could happen...

I've cooked a few types of fish and they are all the "normal" ones you can get at a regular supermarket: salmon, trout, tilapia, cod, mahi mahi, Chilean sea bass, etc. I saw shad in the freezer aisle at Fubonn today, but if the fishing gods would shine upon my pole one day, I could fish a shad out of the Columbia River. I've never had shad or shad roe, but seeing how it is plentiful in the Pacific NW, I passed this by. Also, for a mystery ingredient, because it is a trial 'n' error process, it's an ingredient that is also inexpensive to procure.

I settled upon something called Moonfish. It is quite small and much smaller than a blue gill. This is definitely not of the Hawaiian variety, and is probably more like some freakish thing a fisherman would haul up in the net with other fish and didn't want to throw it away. And for a mere $2 for 1 lb, there are two of these in the package:

Roasted Duck Wings

When I go to a city park and see ducks quacking happily by a pond or being fed stale bread by little kids, the first thought that comes to mind is not how cute the scene is, but rather how tasty those ducks would be roasted, braised, baked, or as the main ingredient in a soup. Suffice to say I have only hunted ducks at a supermarket's freezer aisle.

This is the third time I've made this particular appetizer. The ingredient ratio is decently palatable and not too salty. After the wings have baked, they can be served warm or chilled. Compared to the rest of the duck parts available at Fubonn, wings are inexpensive and if you hack them at the joints, each wing can be split into 3 sections.

A duck wing, separated

The marinade

4 tsp cooking mirin
3 slices fresh peeled ginger, minced
3 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp five spice powder

1 package of duck wings, about 2 lbs

Duck wings marinating in a ziploc bag

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1. Separate each wing into three parts by slicing through the tendon and skin at the joints.

2. Place wing parts in a large bowl (or large ziploc bag) and let sit in marinade for at least an hour.

3. Spread wings onto a glass (or ceramic) 9x13 baking pan. I have found that baking these wings on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil doesn't include easy removal of the wings from the foil. Spread the marinade on top of the wings.

4. Add some water to the baking pan, otherwise the thinnest part of the wings will burn and dry out.

5. Bake for 30 minutes, allow for about 15 minutes on each side. Yes, this means you should probably flip the wings mid-way through.

6. Remove from oven and eat.

Finished duck wings ready to eat

Crockpot Apple Butter

This is one of the many recipes that I wanted to try since moving to the Pacific Northwest. The bounty of autumn produce includes apples, pears, grapes, chestnuts, etc., and are really inexpensive to get a hold of. Apples keep for a long time in the refrigerator if they are stored properly. I keep mine in plastic bags, the kind that you get from the grocery store, not the kind you take groceries home in from the grocery store. There is a tiny difference and that is the ability to keep air and moisture out of the bag.

I picked up a varity of apples and pears earlier in the month from Portland Nursery's apple tasting event. Depending on where you shop, apples can be as cheap as $0.30/lb if buying directly from an apple farm in WA or OR state, about $0.70/lb from a retail grocer that is able to move large quantities of local produce, like Gateway Produce, or up to $1.49/lb if buying off-season.

For this recipe I used a 6-quart programmable crockpot and let the apples cook overnight on the 10-hours low setting. The next day, it had the consistency of applesauce so cooked it on the 4-hours high setting to simmer off the excess liquid.

Depending on the sweetness of the apples, you'll need to vary the amount of sugar in the recipe. This batch used red winesap apples that aren't terribly palatable as an eating apple. Winesap apples are very firm when ripe and are typically used to make cider. They're also tart and slightly sour when not quite ripe. Any sweet or mildly sweet apple of mixed or single variety can be used.

Ingredients

8 small-to-medium red winesap apples
1 c. granulated unbleached sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cardamom (or allspice)
1/2 tsp cloves
dash of salt
3/4 c. water

This spice ratio accommodates up to 3 lbs of apples. I just used the apples I had on hand.

Directions

1. Wash, peel, and core all apples, then dice into chunks.

2. Add prepared apples, water, and spices to crockpot. Mix until the apples are all coated with spice.

3. Set crockpot on low and cook until apples are soft. Use a potato masher or immersion blender to remove chunks of apple so that it has an applesauce consistency.

This can keep for a few weeks in the refrigerator.

Canning instructions

Pack into hot, sterilized jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. This batch made three 8 oz jars + one 12 oz jar.

Kitchen notes:
2010: used Red winesap apples, made 3 pints
2011: used Virginia winesap apples, made 3.5 pints (7 half-pint jars)
2012: used organic winesap apples, unknown variety from Tonnemaker Farms; batch #1 used 8 apples and made 2 pints (4 half-pint jars); batch #2 used 10 apples and made 2.5 pints (5 half-pint jars) with about a 1/2 c. leftover. Also, batch #2 had a half cup less granulated sugar. Total so far is 9 half-pint jars.
2014: used Red Rome apples; made 3.5 pints (7 half-pint jars) of apple butter and 2 pints (4 half-pint jars) of apple sauce
2014 (Oct): finally got a hold of Red winesap apples.. yay! Batch1 6 half pints (from 5 lbs), Batch2 2 pints + 6 half pints (from 6 lbs)
2015 (Oct): 8 pints from 13 lbs of Red winesap apples
2016: 6.5 pints from 10 lbs Red winesap apples
2017 (Nov): __ pints from 8 lbs Red winesap apples

Kitchen Note: dried fruit rehydration

Years ago I bought a small bag of unsweetened, dried blueberries from Trader Joes and they aren't very good to eat, probably because they're all really dried out now. I had been experimenting with mirin (rice wine for cooking, slightly sweeter than sake, much less sweet than Chinese xiaoxing red cooking wine) this summer since procuring a bottle of it from Uwajimaya's Seattle store.

I wondered if using mirin to rehydrate dried blueberries would impart its flavor to the blueberries when used in another recipe. Well, I can't tell the difference. Perhaps in part because the blueberries were used to make blueberry pancakes. This batch turned out to be pretty tasty.

Method? I heated the dried blueberries with mirin in a small saucepan for a few minutes, then scooped out just the blueberries and put them into the pancake batter.

Asiago Cheese Crackers

In my attempt to make flat bread crackers, I added grated asiago cheese to the dough and used some on top of the cracker. However, seeing how today is a 100% humidity day (raining), these crackers came out really tough to chew and not crunchy at all. The crackers with cheese on top taste significantly better than the plain ones. I had hoped to use these in place of the multi-seed flatbread crackers I get from Trader Joe's, but alas, this recipe still needs tweaking.

Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 c. warm water
1/4 c. grated asiago cheese
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar

Seed topping (on a plate, combine):

grated asiago cheese
black sesame seeds
white sesame seeds

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


1. In a cup, add butter to warm water until butter has melted.

2. Sift the flour, salt, sugar together.

3. Gradually add the butter/water to the flour mixture and knead until smooth.

4. Place in a clean lidded container and let dough rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator.

5. Take dough out and roll it into a 12" log. Slice in half, and slice the halves in half until there are 30+ pieces.

6. With each piece, flatten dough using the bottom of a 4 oz ramekin or other sturdy flat-bottomed container. It should come to be about a circle, though, it doesn't have to be uniform.

7. Moisten one side of the circle with water and dip into seed topping. Set onto parchment-lined baking tray.

8. Bake for 15 minutes or until bottoms and edges are lightly browned.

9. Let cool on a rack. If the crackers are still soft, place all the crackers on the baking tray and let cool in the oven after the heat has been shut off.

Potstickers, Gyoza, Wontons, oh my!

Depending on which culture your eating perspective is from, these meat and vegetable filled dumplings can be fried, boiled, or steamed. Wikipedia would have you believe that the names have different meanings, and they do, but the differences are so insignificant that it really doesn't matter what you call them. On the contrary, gyoza skins are much thicker than wonton wrappers and can hold up to frying a lot better.

The base mix of my family's recipe is ground pork, chopped spinach, and minced chives. Ground pork can be substituted with ground chicken or ground turkey but the latter is leaner than pork. Water or broth has to be added to the mix so that the meat doesn't taste as dry; and ground beef is never used, at least not in any of the restaurants I've been to. My garden's chives aren't all that robust so I didn't cut them for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork
1 lb chopped spinach, drained
1/4 c. minced water chestnuts
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 small shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and minced

a small bowl of water

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.

I used round gyoza wrappers for this batch. I like the taste/texture of the thicker wrapper (compared to wonton wrappers). If you work quickly, the wrappers won't dry out.

2. In the palm of your hand place one wrapper. Place 1 tsp of the mix into the center of the wrapper.

3. Wet half the edge of the wrapper so that when the wrapper is folded in half, the water helps to seal the edges. Starting from the far right (or left) of the folded over wrapper, crimp the edges by pushing in the wrapper to form valley folds (like origami, only with gyoza wrappers).

Every crimping/sealing style is different and varies from shop to shop. All that matters is that the edges are sealed so that when the dumpling cooks, its juices do not spill out.

4. Set aside on a plate or tray and complete the rest of the wrappers.

All lined up and ready for cooking

To cook by boiling:

Bring a pot (with a lid) to boil. Add the raw dumplings and boil until all the dumplings float. It is possible to overcook the dumplings (the dough starts to disintegrate). Take them out after the pot returns to a full boil.

To cook by frying:

In a skillet or frying pan (with a lid), heat 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil until hot. Turn heat down to medium and add the dumplings in a single layer. After 2-3 minutes, check the dumplings and see if the bottoms are lightly browned. If so, turn every dumpling to an un-browned side.

Add about 1/4 c. of water to the pan and quickly cover with a lid. The hot steam will cook the dumpling. When the frying sounds less fierce (e.g., the water has mostly steamed off), remove dumplings when the water has mostly boiled off.

Remove dumplings from pan and serve. About 8-10 dumplings is a typical serving size.

View more pics.

Tofu Dango

It's hard to not try a new recipe when you see the food item raved about on an anime series. Part of this recipe is about curiosity and seeing how there are so few ingredients for it, the dumplings practically begged to be made. Depending on the sauce used on the dango, it can be sweet or savory. It's pretty easy to make.

Dango (dumplings) coated with black sesame,
vanilla sauce, and a savory sauce

Prep/cooking time: 20 minutes
Cuisine: Japanese
Food type: appetizer or dessert

Tofu Dango

Ingredients

6 oz tofu (roughly half a box of Silken tofu, firm)
2/3 c. glutinous rice flour

Directions

1. Mix ingredients together in a bowl. If it is too dry, add a little bit of water. If it's too wet/sticky, add a little bit more rice flour.

2. Form into a log and separate it into equal portions. Half, then quarters, then smaller pieces from the quarters.

3. With the smaller pieces roll each into a ball. You may coat each with a some rice flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.

4. Bring a pot of water to boil and add the dumplings. Boil for 2-3 minutes or until the dumplings are floating on the water.

5. Use a slotted spoon or strainer to take the dumplings out. Immerse in a cold water bath to stop the dumplings from cooking.

6. Spear three dumplings onto a bamboo skewer. Set on a plate.

At this stage, I don't advise eating them. They're really, really bland.

Dango Sauce Variations

(savory)

1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar

Bring to a boil and let cool in a small bowl. Spoon over dango.

(simple vanilla sauce, not vegan)

1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp flour
1/4 c. milk

Bring ingredients to a boil. Let cool and serve over dango.

(sweet, black sesame)

1/4 c. black sesame seeds
1/4 c. brown sugar

Grind seeds until powdery in a suribachi or food prep. Coat the dango and serve.


View more pics.

Hon-kaeshi (soba sauce)

Hon-kaeshi is a dark Japanese noodle sauce often served with chilled soba noodles or other savory dishes. Its ingredients are a ratio of dark soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. I have adapted the ratio for 1 serving, though, it can probably be multiplied for more. And, since I'm using this with a bowl of fresh soba noodles, this preparation is for serving it fresh. A traditional method would be to cook the ingredients together for storage in the refrigerator. You could probably use unbleached granulated sugar instead of brown sugar, but you should use a good quality soy sauce and mirin. I used Takara mirin, a cooking sake.

Ingredients

1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp brown sugar

Directions

Combine ingredients and mix until sugar has dissolved. Serve as is in a separate bowl from soba noodles or mix with soba noodles, then serve.

Can also prepare with rehydrated wakame seaweed and serve over cooked soba noodles. I like wakame since it is cheaper and easier to find in the Pacific NW than bonito, and much easier to prepare than kombu seaweed.

Because this recipe calls for both sugar and soy sauce, it can also be used as a flavoring with grilled chicken (yakitori), thin slices of beef served over vegetables (sukiyaki), etc.

The traditional Kaeshi prep method is as follows:

4 1/4 c. (1 litre) good quality soy sauce
3/4 to 1 c. mirin
3/4 to 1 c. brown sugar

Directions:

1. In a pot, heat mirin until boiling, then simmer until much of the alcohol has evaporated.
2. Turn off heat and add sugar to pot, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
3. Add soy sauce and bring to a boil until liquid temp is 185 degrees F (85 degrees C).
4. Turn off heat and let cool until transferring liquid to a container.

Snickerdoodles

What's a better reason to bake cookies than making a batch of one with an amusing name. There are four primary ingredients in this recipe which make them really delicious and yet so unhealthy. They are a perfect complement with milk, ice cream, or eating them at a rest stop along Interstate 5; which, strangely enough is where I had them last this summer. In WA state, all the rest stops along I-5 are staffed by local volunteer groups like the Ham radio club of Vancouver, Lion's International, Rotary club chapters, etc. The state highway benefits from having fewer tired drivers on the road, thus fewer accidents, and the nonprofit organization is able to raise 'donation' funds. It's a really neat idea to offer free coffee/tea/cocoa and cookies to visitors at rest stops. I have never seen an accident (fortunately) between south of Olympia and north of Portland along this highway.

Anyhow, back to the recipe. We can safely assume that these cookies originated from Western Europe, or wherever there was a large influx of sugar and dairy traders. The Joy of Cooking book attributes the cookie's origin to Germany. Other sources seem to indicate it being of Dutch, New England (Pennsylvania USA), or Roman origin. It is basically a butter-sugar cookie dough rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking. Traditionally it was made with cream of tartar as its leavening agent and aluminum-free baking powder can be substituted. It's interesting to note that these cookies don't resemble snails in any way, so attributing the origin to the German word Schneckennudeln ("snail noodles") is odd.

I'd imagine that the cinnamon could be swapped out with other spices like ground ginger, cardamom, allspice, or nutmeg, and the spice flavor would be much more intense.

Dough Ingredients

2 3/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 c. unsalted butter (2 sticks, softened)
1 1/2 c. granulated unbleached cane sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Coating

1/3 c. granulated unbleached cane sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1a. In a bowl, combine dry dough ingredients together.

1b. In a smaller bowl, whisk together sugar and ground cinnamon. Set aside.

1c. In a separate bowl, combine butter, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.

If you have a stand mixer, you could cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs and vanilla extract. And, gradually add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) until entirely incorporated into a dough. But alas, I don't have a stand mixer.

3. Gradually mix together dry with wet until a dough forms.

4. Take a teaspoon and scoop out some dough. Roll it into a ball and then roll in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place ball on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and squish flat with the underside of the 1-cup measuring cup, or a large glass.

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are golden brown; if you don't, the thicker cookies will taste a bit raw in the center. Let cool on racks before storing in an air tight container at room temperature.

Snickerdoodles Cooling on a Wire Rack