Pumpkin Bread (with yogurt)

Whole pumpkins keep for a very long time, it seems. I harvested two sugar pumpkins from my yard in October and only just now hacked one open for this recipe. The pumpkin yielded 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin meat and a ton of seeds that I'll be using to trade for other seeds at neighborhood seed exchange later this month. These pumpkins are the second generation from the same pumpkin source. Two years ago I purchased sugar pumpkins from Trader Joe's, cooked the pumpkins and saved the seeds. Last year I planted some of those seeds down and of the surviving plants with my inept ability to gauge when pumpkins should be planted into the ground, I managed to only harvest two sugar pumpkins. Each pumpkin yields a lot of seeds. I suppose these could be also eaten raw or toasted. I don't know how the original sugar pumpkins were raised, but mine were raised by organic farming methods.. y'know.. water, sunlight, dirt, mulch, pruning, etc. No fertilizers and certainly no growth enhancers like Miracle Gro.

While I have another pumpkin bread recipe on this blog, that one is made with tofu. This one has plain yogurt in it since my tofu seems to be a bit frozen in the freezer. This loaf didn't rise as much as I had hoped, but it smells delicious and tastes great.

Ingredients

1 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. fresh sugar pumpkin, cooked
1/4 c. plain, organic whole milk yogurt
1 egg
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each: sea salt, ground ginger, ground allspice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Use unsalted butter to grease a loaf pan and set aside.

2. Whisk together egg and vanilla extract. Gradually whisk in brown sugar, melted butter, plain yogurt, honey, pumpkin puree, baking powder, spices, and flour.

3. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes, until the top has a golden brown color and a tester comes out clean.

Squid with Bacon

I was trying to think of fancier names for this dish, like ones you'd find on a pretentious restaurant menu. Here's what I came up with:

Fried calamari with roasted garlic and bacon
Herb roasted calamari with apple-smoked bacon

And then I got to thinking that a lot of recipes have delicious-sounding descriptors, but may not actually be true to how the dish is prepared. Fresh herbs, for example, are almost always added after the dish has finished cooking...otherwise they'd lose their fresh green look and be all wilted. Calamari is the Italian plural word for squid (it's "calamaro" when referring to one squid). When people imagine what squid looks like, they are usually imagining a slimy, angry, beady-eyed multi-tentacled creature wrapping its giant arms around a ship at sea. No? Ok, well, maybe that's just me.

Frying is the fastest way that I know to cook it up. But, it can also be steamed, boiled, stir fried, salted, roasted, etc. Preparation of the squid itself is the hardest part of the dish because there are so many steps to cleaning it before the body gets sliced up. And, if you don't wear gloves, your hands end up all very squid-smelling.

The original recipe ratio comes from Bobby Flay. I have never watched that particular episode, so I had to surmise what he meant by lardon bacon. I'm assuming it's diced, fried bacon, until someone informs me otherwise. Flay's recipe calls for an additional two tablespoons of olive oil after the bacon has fried, but the bacon already yields roughly two tablespoons of lard, so if I do add the olive oil, it would only be to make the finished squid look shiny. Also, since I don't live near the coast, I have never seen fresh squid at the grocery store or specialty asian market; so this recipe uses frozen squid that has been thawed to room temperature.

Squid with Bacon and Thyme

Ingredients

1 lb squid, cleaned and sliced into rings
2 slices of bacon, diced
2 tbsp parsley leaves (optional, for garnish)
1 tbsp thyme leaves
3 garlic cloves, minced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Prepare the squid.

2. Fry bacon in a medium pan until it is lightly golden brown and most of the fat has rendered out.

2. Add garlic and squid, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper. Cook squid for 2-3 minutes or until just cooked through. The squid rings curl backwards and the flesh turns to an opaque white color.

3. Remove from heat and stir in parsley (optional) and thyme before serving.

Canned Tomato Soup

A pretty funny recipe title, but true. Most of my canned tomato products (sauce, paste, whole, diced) go into other things, like beef stew, pizza sauce, or spaghetti sauce. This is a really easy recipe for making a quick tomato soup when it is 25 degrees F outside. Celery is among the dirtiest of all the vegetables, so you should probably use organic celery.

Ingredients

One 14.5 oz can of organic diced tomatos, no salt added
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 c. celery, diced
1 1/2 tsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp organic granulated sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp dried basil, crushed

Directions

1. In a medium pan over low-medium heat, melt butter and add celery. Cook until tender. Add flour and stir to make a roux.

2. Using a food prep or stick blender, briefly pulse the diced tomato then add it to the pan and bring it to a boil.

3. Add sugar, salt, pepper, oregano and basil and cook until the soup thickens. Remove from heat and serve.

Can use fresh basil leaves as a garnish, if available.

Serves 2.

Panna Cotta with Vanilla and Honey

Since the first version didn't quite come out as expected, I am attempting this recipe again with the hopes of creating a more delicate texture to a dessert that is supposed to not make you pass out after dinner from caloric overload. If you are going to pair a wine with this, I suggest a sweet dessert wine like moscato, port, or a dry Riesling. This particular ingredient ratio comes from Martha Stewart's recipe site. I figure, if she can cater this, it is probably a good one to make.

I buy my raw honey locally, either from the farmer's market or directly from a farm. Prices here range from $10-15/quart, the latter pricing is typically during peak summer season at the farmer's market.

If you're still looking to count calories with this one, you may be able to shave off a few by using low fat yogurt instead of whole milk yogurt. I don't recommend mucking up this recipe using fat-free yogurt.

Ingredients

2 c. organic heavy cream
2 tbsp unbleached, organic granulated sugar
1 tbsp raw honey
1 vanilla bean
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (1/4 oz; 1 tbsp) + 1/2 c. water
1 c. plain organic whole milk yogurt
pinch of sea salt
1/4 c. raw honey, warmed

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, add cream, sugar, 1 tbsp honey, and a vanilla bean (split lengthwise with its seeds scraped out and added to the cream as well as the pod). Boil until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and cover with a lid. Let the vanilla bean infuse the cream for about 10 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, add unflavored gelatin powder to half a cup of water. Let gelatin soften for a few minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt and salt.

4. Bring cream to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in gelatin. Use a strainer when pouring the cream into the yogurt to remove the vanilla bean fragments. Mix until well combined.

5. Pour combined liquid into ramekins, depending on whatever sizes you have on hand. This batch made it evenly into eight 4oz ramekins. Chill for 2 hours, up to 2 days.

6. Warm 1/4 c. raw honey in a heat-proof bowl in the oven on its lowest setting for 15 minutes. In my oven this heat setting is 170 degrees F. This will allow you to pour the honey easily on and around the plated panna cotta.

7. To serve: unmold each panna cotta by running a straight paring knife around the inner edge of the ramekin. Set the ramekin in a bowl of boiling hot water for a few seconds, then invert the ramekin onto a serving plate. Hold these two together, firmly shake to release the panna cotta. Drizzle with honey before eating.

Kitchen Note: Portland Supply Shops

I visited the eastside of downtown Portland (east of the Morrison bridge) and was mildly amused by the shops I browsed. I chose these in particular because of their proximity to each other.


Rose's Equipment & Supply
207 Southeast Clay Street
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 233-7450

Tram: SW River Pkwy & Moody

This is definitely one of the few supply shops in Portland for both the gourmet foodie and restaurant chef. It's one of two notable places for the more intermediate food aficionado. The other place that I haven't visited yet is Bowers NW. You can get all sorts of utensils, serving things, and commercial grade cookware from here. They even have a decent collection of woks to choose from; though, even with the raised edge you can buy, it won't fit onto most conventional/residential gas stoves. I didn't find the pâtisserie moulds that I was looking for. 


Mirador Community Store
2106 Southeast Division Street
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 231-5175

Bus: SE Division & 20th

A very nice store that carries organic fiber products, some interesting cookware, and all supports the macrobiotic/vegan lifestyle. There is quite a lot to see here and I was able to find a suribachi (Japanese mortar and pestle) set for a decent price. I already own one, but I seemed to have left it behind in California. It is the best tool for grinding high moisture content tiny seeds, like sesame seeds. When shopping for one, the pestle should be made from a hard wood so that it doesn't grind down the clay as you pulverize herbs/seeds in it.

Panna Cotta with Blueberry Sauce

Panna cotta is an eggless custard. There are a variety of ways to make it, but the key ingredient is heavy cream or creme fraiche. Sometimes plain yogurt is blended in so that it has a lighter flavor to it. The dessert is also not for those skimping on calories because heavy cream is heavy with calories (1 cup heavy cream = 400 calories), and this is before a fruit compote, sauce or chocolate is added. It's a minimum of 200 calories per serving.

I first had this at Tutta Bella's in Seattle and it was served up with a mixed berry pureé on top. Tutta Bella adds milk to the cream for their rendition of it, which is probably more accurate than the ingredient ratio below. Mine came out rather heavy texture, whereas a professional chef would have made it to have a delicate texture. Nonetheless, it all tastes pretty good to me.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. organic heavy cream
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cold water
1 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve gelatin in cold water. I use Knox unflavored gelatin because it is readily available here in the US.

2. In a small saucepan, heat the cream, sugar, and vanilla extract until boiling. Add the gelatin and stir for two minutes. Remove from heat and pour into serving bowls or short juice glasses.

3. Let chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, or until the panna cotta has set.

4. Add the blueberry sauce to the top of the panna cotta and serve.

Makes 3 half-cup servings.

Blueberry Sauce

I made this to pair with the panna cotta and I must say that it came out really well. It's very tasty and not too sweet. There is just enough sweetness to bring back the full flavor of the summer picked blueberries.

This is not the right way to make a simple sugar syrup, but doing so balances out the sweetness pretty nicely. Real simple syrups are normally equal parts water and sugar.

Ingredients

1/2 c. water
1/4 c. unbleached granulated sugar
1 tbsp raw honey
2 1/2 c. blueberries, thawed and drained

Directions

1. In a food prep, coarsely chop the 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine water, sugar, and honey and boil until the water has been reduced by  half. Add the chopped and whole blueberries.

3. Blueberries are mostly water, so expect there to be a lot more liquid in the saucepan when the berries cook down. Let this cook over medium-low heat for about 20-30 minutes or until it has an almost jam consistency...which is saucy, but not watery.

4. Pour into a glass bowl, cover, and let it cool until ready to use.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I thought I would try out buttermilk in a recipe using real buttermilk before creating any of the adulterous substitutions (e.g., adding 1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk) to see what it does with pancakes. And it's not just the extra fat in the recipe that makes these pancakes very fluffy indeed, but the slightly sour taste of the buttermilk gives a bit of an edge to them as well.

While my basic pancake recipe is based on Alton Brown's, this ingredient ratio is from Martha Stewart's recipe site. I thawed about a cup of frozen blueberries in warm water and drained them before adding them to the pancakes. What makes this recipe a success goes beyond the basic ingredients and is really due to the order of operations.

I'll be eating blueberries for a while longer with more than four quarts of them in the freezer. Only five more months until they are in peak season again. I might have gone a little bit overboard picking them last summer at a local farm. I couldn't resist how inexpensive and locally grown they were.

Ingredients

1 1/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 c. cultured buttermilk
1/2 c. whole milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 c. frozen blueberries, thawed and drained

Directions

1. In a bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs together, then whisk in the buttermilk, whole milk, and melted butter. If the dairy is too cold, the butter will firm up again.

3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk until combined. Take care to not over-mix the batter.

4. Heat a nonstick griddle or cast iron pan and melt half a pat of butter in it before adding the first pancake. Use a ladle or soup serving spoon to spoon the batter into the pan. Add some blueberries to the pancake. When bubbles form around the edges, gently flip the pancake and cook its other side.

Flour Tortillas

I'm surprised by how easy and effortless this recipe is. The secret is to use fresh lard, IMHO. And, the quickest way to make lard is to fry a couple slices of bacon and use the leftover oil. You get a tasty bacon snack while you are making the tortillas. Two slices of average bacon will yield about two tablespoons of lard.

Makes 12 five-inch tortillas. Good for soft tacos, quesadillas, everyday nibbling, etc.

TheFoodening Blog - Fresh Flour Tortillas

Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 c. water
1 tbsp bacon lard
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Drizzle in bacon lard and work it into the flour using a rubber spatula. Gradually add in the water and stir until a large sticky mass of dough forms. You might not need all of the water, especially on a rainy and/or cold humid day.

2. Knead the dough on a lightly-floured surface until it is elastic and not as sticky.

3. Divide dough into 12 equal portions (if making 4-5 inch tortillas), or into 8 equal portions if making larger sized tortillas. I have an 8" cast iron skillet pan and couldn't make them any larger.

Shape each portion into a ball, then roll it out with a floured rolling pin on a lightly-floured surface.

4. Let the cast iron pan warm up on medium heat before adding the first tortilla. If your pan is well-seasoned, it shouldn't need any oil to fry the tortillas.

5. Each tortilla cooks pretty quickly. When the top of the tortilla starts to form air bubbles, flip it over and cook the other side.

6. Let the cooked tortillas rest in a clean kitchen towel inside a one-gallon plastic bag. This will keep the tortillas warm and from drying out.

Almond Shortbread Cookies

What's to not like about shortbread? While it's packed with butter, it has a light, crispy texture and doesn't feel like it's ladened with fat at all. I should also add that this is a cookie that doesn't take kindly to fat substitutions. This ingredient ratio is a spin on the classical shortbread cookie, with the addition of almond meal and almond extract.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I never had to worry about how cold it was in the kitchen to be able to cream butter and sugar together. Here in the NW, with a six-month rainy season, it is both damp and cold indoors during the winter so I wasn't able to cream the butter after allowing it to sit at room temperature. Instead, what I did was use a pastry blender and cut the butter into the brown sugar, then added the dry ingredients and mixed until strudel-like crumbs formed.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1 c. unsalted butter (two sticks; 8 oz), cut into small pieces
3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. almond meal (ground almonds)
1/4 c. cornstarch
pinch of salt

3 tbsp cold water + 1 tsp almond extract (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. [where possible] Cream butter and brown sugar together with a stand or handheld mixer. Add in flour, almond meal, salt, and cornstarch, and mix until coarse crumbs form. If the cookie dough doesn't come together, add a little bit of water so that it does.

2. Gather the dough into a ball, square, or large mound and let rest on a plate, baking sheet, or on parchment paper and let it rest for a few minutes in the refrigerator.

3. Between a sheet of parchment paper and wax paper, roll out dough until it is 1/8" thick. Peel back the wax paper and cut dough into rectangles, squares, odd shapes. You could even use cookie cutters, but you'll need to either use chilled metal cookie cutters or lightly floured cookie cutters so they don't stick to the cookie when lifted off the parchment paper.

It is important to keep this dough chilled before it goes into the oven. This is to help the cookies retain the shape they were cut into, and so that the butter doesn't melt faster than how the cookie bakes. 

(optional) You can also press the dough into a tart pan (with a removable bottom) and bake for 15-20 minutes until the surface is lightly golden brown. 

4. Space cookies about an inch apart and prick each cookie with the tines of a fork. The cookies will expand slightly when baking. Bake cookies on a parchment-lined baking tray for 10-15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack before serving.

Note: If you are making almond meal (also, almond flour) from scratch, do not over-pulse the raw whole unblanched almonds in the nut grinder, spice mill, or coffee grinder or you'll be making almond butter instead. The almond meal should be able to pass through a flour sifter. The larger bits can be put through the grinder again.

Homemade Seasoning Mix

This spice ratio was found to not work so well in a beef stew environment (for me it was a wee bit too spicy), but this tastes great when used as a spice rub for rotisseried chicken. I suppose you could swap out the flour component of it for another starch that has less gluten in it, if you were trying to stay away from wheat. I keep this in a glass jar; mostly because a plastic container would absorb the odor of many of the spices in this mixture and it's easier to see what's in the jar.

Ingredients

1 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp ground thyme
1 tbsp dried basil, crushed
1 tbsp celery seed
2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Directions

In a clean glass jar, add all the ingredients, stir together with a fork/knife/spoon/chopstick/etc, cover the jar with its lid, then shake to combine. It's only dried spices, so as long as you don't allow moisture into the jar it should keep for a few months.

For beef stew, use 2-3 tablespoons per pound of meat. Add to stew and stir in to incorporate. If you're making this in a slow cooker or Crockpot and you have vegetables in it, crack the lid open a little to simmer off the excess liquid or the stew won't thicken up.

For BBQ or rotisserie chicken parts, use 2-3 teaspoons per pound of meat. Put mix into a small bowl and use your fingers to coat each chicken part with the seasoning mix. The addition of flour (versus other types of food starch) creates a crisp savory layer as the chicken cooks, assuming you haven't taken the skin (the best part!) off the chicken.

Fried Apple Pies

What makes a good fried fruit pie is its tender, flaky crust filled with a sweet filling that reminds you of when you had a much faster metabolism. When I go out on road trips, a short stop at a McD's for their fried apple pies is not unusual for me. It is a treat that I enjoyed in my teens and 20s, and still enjoy today. This recipe only uses natural ingredients. If you were mass producing these, I can see how you could sacrifice quality of taste with cheaper substitutes, like vegetable shortening instead of butter. I also didn't deep fry these in an unholy oil like canola or corn oil. Rather, I pan fried them in a cast iron skillet with olive oil. Sure, lots of people will tell you that olive oil is better used raw and not on high heat. But aside from butter, I don't have other oils in my pantry to use for frying other than EVOO.

I used gala apples for this since I only stock the fridge with eating apples (vs canning, pie, cider types of apples). If you use a more tart apple like a Cortland or Granny Smith, you may want to up the sugar content in the filling.

Dough Ingredients (for 8 pies)

1 1/2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 c. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Up to 1/2 c. cold water

Filling Ingredients

2 apples, any variety, peeled/cored/chopped into small pieces
1/4 c. unbleached granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 c. water

1 tsp cornstarch + 1 tbsp water (mixed in a small, separate bowl)

Directions

For the dough: Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Use a pastry blender and cut the butter into the flour until coarse crumbs form. Gradually add the cold water while mixing to form a more cohesive dough. Mix by hand until the dough comes together into a ball easily. Let it the dough rest in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Cut the dough ball into four equal pieces. Each quarter piece will be divided into two equal pieces. The remaining piece should be rolled out on a lightly floured surface to 1/8" thickness, forming either a square, a rectangle, a circle, or oval. Look, I don't care what shape your pies are in. Mine took on an almost Hostess fruit pie look (half moon arc). Cookie cutters could be used, but I don't have any that are large enough for this purpose.

Put about 1-2 tablespoons of the filling in the center of the rolled-out dough. Fold in half and seal the edges by lightly damping the interior edges with water. Use the tines of a fork to "seal" the edges. The last thing you want is the filling to ooze out of the pie while it is frying.

For the filling: In a 1-quart saucepan, combine water, sugar, salt, and apples. Cook until softened, about 10-15 minutes on medium heat. You'll notice that as the apples release liquid, there is more water than you had expected and it is very runny. Continue to cook over low-medium heat until the water has reduced by half.

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with one tablespoon of cold water and mix well. While the apple filling is cooking on the stove (after the water has been reduced), add the cornstarch liquid and stir the filling. It should thicken up nicely and be ready for pie assembly.

Let filling cool completely (say, put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes) before adding to the dough.

Frying: It depends on how much more unhealthy you want to make this recipe. I started with 2 tbsp of EVOO in the frying pan for every two pies fried. Fry each pie for a few minutes on each side until the dough is of a dark golden brown color. When done, place pies on a paper towel-lined plate and serve.

For deep frying, you need a lot more vegetable oil (in a medium pot, this would be about 3-4 inches of oil), a deep pot capable of accommodating your pies or a deep fryer, and a thermometer used for measuring oil temp (oil temp needs to be at 350 degrees F). Fry for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

One last note about oil used for deep frying. The oil takes on the scent and flavor of whatever was last fried in it. So, don't be using that oil used for deep frying breaded shrimp because your apple pies, while they'll taste like apple pies, will also have a distinct shrimpy flavor as well.

Oven Baked Pan Cake

When I was a child, my dad used to make this sweet breakfast item in a large square cast-iron skillet on the stove. When I got much older, I asked him for the recipe. Apparently it was one that he created after much trial and error, and had forgotten over the years. I was told that I had to recreate it by the same method, trial and error. As for the size of the cast iron pan, I used an 8" and given how much one side of the batter rose while baking, it's probably be better in a 10" or larger pan. This is my first run at remaking a childhood memory.

The recipe's ingredients and baking process is remarkably similar to German Apple Pancake, Oven Fried Pancake, Baked Peach Pancake, Yorkshire Pudding (minus the drippings of roast beef), or a Dutch Baby. I imagine that this recipe has gone through hundreds of iterations across different countries and generations. Here is my rendition of it.

Despite how it looks, it is really good.

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 c. whole milk
3/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
pinch of salt
2 tbsp unbleached granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and while it is heating up, place clean cast iron pan in oven.

1. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and sugar.

2. Whisk eggs and milk together (1-2 minutes) by hand or with an electric mixer. Gradually whisk in flour mixture.

3. When the oven reaches the baking temp, take skillet out and put in butter pieces. The butter melts pretty quickly, so use a spoon to coat the sides of the pan with butter. This'll make it easier for the cake to slide out after baking.

4. Pour in batter and bake for 25 minutes. It should be lightly golden colored on top when done.

5. Remove from oven and slide cake out onto a plate. Cut into slices and serve with a fruit compote, eat it plain, with freshly sliced fruit, or bacon.

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.