Salsa

Making salsa is neither hard nor time consuming, but having all the necessary ingredients on hand is the troublesome part. There is certainly some spice to it. And, in early autumn, all of these ingredients are in season. The recipe ratio comes from Harold Shifflett's YouTube video.

Makes 10 pints

Lots of salsa for the winter

Ingredients

10 pounds fresh tomatoes, any variety
8 tomatillos
8 jalapenos
4 red chilis
2 green bell peppers
1 bunch fresh cilantro
2 heads of garlic, cloves removed
4 tbsp lime or lemon juice
4 tbsp kosher salt or sea salt (this tastes salty to me, maybe next time start with 3 tbsp)

Directions

1. Prepare ingredients for the food prep:

Wash and core tomatoes. Slice into wedges and set aside.
Wash and de-stem hot peppers (red chilis and jalapenos). Set aside.
Wash and core the bell pepper. Discard seeds. Roughly chop.
Discard the outer hull of the tomatillos. Wash fruit and set aside.
Peel outer layer then roughly chop the onion(s).
Wash cilantro bunch, remove brown leaves and stems. Roughly chop and set aside.
Peel and trim hard end from garlic cloves. Set aside.

2. Work in batches. Toss everything except the salt and lemon juice into a food prep or blender and puree until no big chunks remain.

3. Pour puree into a large stockpot, add 1 tbsp of salt at a time, add lemon or lime juice. Boil for 1.5 hours or until the salsa reaches a proper consistency (not too watery, not too chunky).

4. Process in a hot water canning bath for 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Spice Latte (Coffee or Tea)

If you like bits floating around in your tea, you can certainly skip straining the liquid before drinking. I strained it because I didn't want the spices to steep longer than they should. I would caution that you shouldn't drink this at night or before going to bed. These spices, while warming, are also stimulants. First time making this and after tasting, the recipe still needs some tweaking. Recipe can be doubled, as necessary.

Makes 1 cup.

Ingredients

1 cup organic milk (whole cow milk, coconut milk, almond milk, etc.)
1 tbsp organic pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 tsp loose leaf black tea or green tea (instant coffee, instant espresso, or 2 tbsp freshly ground coffee)
sweetener to taste (I used 2 tsp organic sugar)
ground cinnamon for garnish (optional)
organic whipped cream for garnish (optional, only 8 calories per tbsp!)

Directions

Heat milk, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice in a small saucepan. Don't let it scald or boil, a gentle simmer until the milk starts to foam. Remove from heat and pour through a mesh strainer into a mug. Stir in vanilla extract and sugar. Enjoy.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

This autumn, Portland is strangely sunny and dry. Not that I'm complaining mind you. The mornings are a bit chilly now (in the 40s) but for the most part very pleasant. I'd imagine you'd be using this in a pumpkin or sweet squash pie; but for today, I am using this in a chai tea latte.

The basic ratio goes like this:

4 tbsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp ground nutmeg
4 tbsp ground ginger
3 tbsp ground allspice

Mix all spices together in a half pint mason jar. Stir until combined. Cap and label the jar. Use as directed by another recipe.

Steamed Bao with Pork and Nappa Cabbage

This is a different bao dough recipe than the other one (uses milk) or this one (uses milk powder) posted on this blog; the primary difference is that it doesn't call for dairy. For wrapping meat dumplings, it is very pliable and easy to work with. It's tastes ok. Though, it'll take a lot more tries to get the pleats to look "normal" at the top.

Steamed Bao, looks pretty ugly, tastes okay

Because it's autumn, it's about 60 degrees in the kitchen. I used a double boiler with a covered bowl insert to create a warm, dark environment for the yeast to rise. It's really quite clever. I didn't even have to crank the oven.

Sloppy Elk

I am cycling through the freezer and this ground elk is from earlier in the year. I thought I would do something different with it so I made Sloppy Joes.. with elk meat. After the copious amounts of doctored homemade ketchup, I really can't tell what I was thinking when I started this recipe. It's food and I'm hungry. Let's eat!

Ingredients

1 lb ground elk meat
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c homemade ketchup, plus more for reheating
garlic powder, to taste
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

In a large skillet, heat oil and add garlic. Fry the garlic a bit until lightly golden brown then add the peppers. Stir it around some more. Add the meat and the remainder of the ingredients. You should always be tasting this (after the meat has cooked).

The consistency should be about the same as spaghetti sauce, runny enough to be poured on top of bread, but not too liquidy to seep right through it. This can also be eaten on top of rice or other non-rice cooked grains.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies

After having made a failed batch of protein powder to presumably make chocolate covered protein bars, I have perhaps stumbled across one of the most delicious tasting cookies I have made so far. Though, the amount of sugar in the recipe is a bit much. I could certainly cut it down.

This is what went into the protein powder:

wet ingredients

1/4 c homemade sugar cane syrup, heated to 220 F and cooled
2 tbsp organic peanut butter
1/2 c homemade pear sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract

dry ingredients

3/4 dark chocolate chips
2/3 c dried cranberries
2 c old fashioned organic oatmeal, pulsed briefly in a food prep
4 tbsp organic chia seed, pulsed briefly in a food prep
2 tbsp organic flax seeds, pulsed briefly in a food prep
2/3 c organic coconut flour


And, to help bring it together as a "dough", I added:

1 egg
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c organic granulated sugar (omit next time)
1/2 c brown sugar

Directions

Mix together until all the ingredients stick together. Spooned onto a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat. Gently press down onto each cookie. These don't spread out, so a dozen can be baked on a single sheet at a time.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes.

Makes 2 dozen tablespoon-sized cookies.

Kitchen Notes: Paneer vs Farmer's Cheese

I had a half of a half gallon of milk that was stamped for today. I never know what that date stamp means, sell by or use by; but for liquid dairy, my brain thinks it means the latter. So, to not drink endless cups of hot chocolate or warm milk, I turned it into cheese with some help from lemon juice. The process of making paneer is identical to making farmers cheese. The former is not salted but the latter is. Plus, paneer is a pressed cheese.. which essentially means that it is drained for longer with heavy things on top of the cheesecloth than farmers cheese.

Once farmers cheese is done, you could stir heavy cream back into it to make cream cheese and blend it up to make it smooth. You can also mix fresh herbs into it and re-wrap the cheese in wax paper or cheesecloth to make an herbed cheese; kind of how you'd make a herbed butter. But, alas, I am still talking about farmers cheese. Onto the paneer...

Paneer is essentially cottage cheese, the large or small curds of the cheesemaking process. Paneer is a bit drier than farmers cheese and is typically cut into cubes then floured for cooking in savory dishes. I don't know how much milk I started with (less than a half gallon), but it made 8 oz of cheese curds. I put the liquid whey in a covered container in the fridge. If I don't use it, the whey will get composted. The whey can be used in place of water for any bread recipe. That's the best use I've found.

Ingredients

some quantity of whole cow milk
2+ tbsp lemon juice (up to 4 tbsp per gallon of milk)

Directions

Bring milk to a rolling boil (bubbles crest the surface and can't be stirred down) and add lemon juice. Stir, stir, stir. Don't let the milk burn. When I turned off the heat and added the lemon juice, curds wouldn't form for me. So I boiled the milk and lemon juice together and that worked. This whole process of the curds forming should take less than 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let the mixture cool for a half hour before straining into a cheesecloth-lined strainer. Rinse the curds (this is a step that I forgot to do and it doesn't break the process, it's just that my cheese will taste a little lemony). Wrap curds in cheesecloth and put it inside a colander with holes. Set something heavy on top of the cheese so that more water will be pressed out. I used another pot filled with water. The second draining should take a few hours as the cheese cools.

The biggest differences in preparation process is the use of lemon juice (vs white vinegar, though any type of fruit acid will do) and the fact that the curds are washed before pressing.

Sweet Potato Fries

These did not come out as crispy as I had hoped they. They are cooked through and resemble fries. I used Japanese sweet potatoes (red skin, yellow flesh) for this; though certainly garnet yams (red skin, orange flesh) or the other sweet potatoes (brown skin, white/beige flesh) can be also be used.

The Foodening Blog: Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2" matchsticks
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Clean and cut sweet potatoes so that the pieces resemble fries. The idea is to cut them into uniform sizes so the fries cook evenly. Toss in a large bowl with olive oil, kosher salt, and black pepper.

Spread onto a baking tray in a single layer.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees F. Remove from oven and flip fries with a spatula. Return tray to the oven and bake for 10 more minutes.

Serve with homemade ketchup.

Mung Bean Paste

I had this idea to make the paste from scratch, mostly because it's not sold in Asian grocery stores. Plus, it's a relatively easy dessert filling to make. It is supposed to go into steamed bao or mooncakes. I'm hoping that a few hours in the refrigerator to cool down will help the paste thicken up before using. The baking soda is supposed to help the beans reduce foaming during the boiling step. I found the bag of beans at an Asian grocery store.

375 g dried whole mung beans
110 g organic granulated sugar
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 tsp baking soda

1. In a large bowl, soak beans in enough water to cover for 4 hours.

2. Do not discard soaking liquid, instead pour liquid into a pot and add the beans and baking soda. Bring to a boil and then simmer covered for 30-45 minutes; stir occasionally so that the beans do not burn. Add water to the beans if there isn't enough water in the pot.

3. Drain, if necessary, through a sieve. In a food prep, combine cooked beans and sugar. Pulse until the beans are thoroughly pulverized.

4. In a frying pan, heat oil and add the bean/sugar mixture over low heat. Stir frequently with a wooden or silicone spatula until the paste is of a consistency that is thickened. Remove from heat and let cool before using.

You should nibble on some of the paste to taste for sweetness. If it isn't sweet enough, mix in a tablespoon of sugar until it is.

Orange Marmalade

After a failed batch of trying to make apple sauce with apples from my Frankenstein tree, I decided to make a marmalade (a citrus jam made from fruit flesh and peel) using Satsuma oranges. I chose these oranges because they have a relatively smooth skin, the peel is bright orange and it has a nice fragrance. They are also very easy to peel after having been peeled with a vegetable peeler. I made candied orange peels earlier in the day. 

After having read Ina Garten's recipe on Food Network, I realized that her no-pectin version had water and sugar as a simple syrup ratio. Her two hour simmering time is to reduce the water in the jam liquid. I halved her water/sugar ratio to just four cups each. The Satsuma oranges are really sweet on their own. And, instead of adding whole lemons, I used just the juice of two fresh lemons.

You can make your own liquid pectin from boiling the peel and pith of oranges or lemons, or green apple peels, in water. Read more about homemade citrus pectin on this link.

Ingredients

3 lbs (6 large) Satsuma oranges, peeled and thinly sliced
4 c simple sugar syrup (4 c water + 4 c sugar)
prepared orange peels (from 4 oranges)
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice (2 large lemons)

Directions

1. Prepare orange peels by using a non-serrated vegetable peeler to remove orange part of peel from oranges. Thinly slice peels with a sharp knife. Put peels in a pot and cover it with enough water to cover the peels. Bring to a boil and boil for 20 minutes. Drain water and set peels aside.

2. In a separate pot, combine 4 cups of water with 4 cups of sugar. Bring to a boil and stir so that all the sugar dissolves. Add sliced oranges and simmer on low heat for 2 hours, or until the liquid volume has reduced by half. 

The temperature will drop to 180-200 degrees F while it simmers. Stir occasionally and skim off the foam.

3. Add prepared orange peels, bring to a boil and heat the mixture up to 220 degrees F. Cook for 10 minutes.  The peels should turn almost translucent at the soft ball stage. Remove from heat and fill sterilized pint or half pint jars.

4. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes 3 pints or 6 half pints.

Gazpacho (Chilled Tomato-based Vegetable Soup)

It seems that every time I make a soup for an event it is of a vegetarian flavor. The soup for tomorrow's Soup Sunday event (a fundraiser for a local religious organization) is gazpacho. The recipe ratio comes from Alton Brown's Good Eats show. The only ingredient I am missing is the ground cumin. In my last couple of moves between Portland and Seattle, I'm not sure where most of my spices ended up. It is likely that I tossed the ones that were several years old or it is simply misfiled in a box somewhere. You know you have too many spices when they reside in multiple storage boxes and in the kitchen cupboards. Onto the recipe...

Gazpacho is a raw soup made of vegetables and its main ingredients are tomatoes, water and garlic. At least those main ingredients are in this batch. I doubled most of AB's ingredient quantities and didn't substitute the cumin with anything. I also added pineapple chunks to this (and drank the juice it came in 'cause I was thirsty). I also omitted the onions because I hate onions. Hopefully the soup will taste fine in the morning after the flavors have mingled together.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
Two 14 oz cans organic diced tomatoes
2 large red bell peppers, diced
2 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium jalapeno, seeded and diced
1/4 c EVOO
2 small limes, juiced
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients into a large bowl. Mix well. Remove 1 1/2 c of the diced ingredients and puree for 15 seconds in a food processor. Return to soup and stir in. Chill for at least an hour or overnight before serving.

Notes

AB's recipe calls for tomato juice. I didn't have any so I used the juice from the canned tomatoes and pressed the tomatoes in the can until no more juice came out. Between the fresh and canned tomatoes I think it was almost two cups of liquid. The leftover canned tomatoes were added to the puree.

Chinese Steamed Buns (mantou)

I have apparently made this before and this version one doesn't use dried milk. The metric recipe ratio comes from the China Sichuan Food website. I'm not sure why the measurement for liquid milk was done in grams, so I used a kitchen scale and measured it out by weight. My Imperial conversion of the recipe is as follows:

Makes 8 buns

Ingredients

10 oz (by weight, roughly 2.25 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1/2 c whole milk, warmed to 110 degrees F
1/4 c water, warmed to 110 degrees F

Directions

1. To ensure that your yeast is still alive. Proof the yeast in warm water with 1 tsp of sugar. After 10 minutes, if the yeast is foamy then it is still active.

2. In a large bowl, add flour and stir yeast water with chopsticks to combine.

3. In a small pot, heat milk and remaining sugar until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat before the milk comes to a boil. Let cool to 110 degrees F before adding it to the flour.

4. Gently knead flour into a ball and cover bowl with a plate. Let rise for about an hour until it has doubled in size.

5. Roll dough on a silicone mat or on a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll out each half into a log and use a dough scraper to divide the log.

6. Dab a little olive oil to the bottom of each bun before placing onto a 2" square of waxed paper. This step is optional. It helps you remove the paper after the buns are steamed.

7. Bring a large stockpot with a steamer basket set inside to a boil. Add enough buns so that they are spaced at least 1/2" apart. Steam for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and enjoy.

These are best eaten right after they're cooked, otherwise the buns will get hard if left out too long.