Missive from Maine

It”s cold and wet in these Maine woods, but I’d rather be cold and wet in Maine than warm and dry almost anywhere else! You did notice the “almost”?

This is my first post from the app on my iPad, and I am trying to figure out how to upload photos! For now, they will have to remain at the bottom of the post. 😕

We had our first lobster rolls of the season: It’s not the sweet lobster meat of summer, and it follows a particularly harsh winter—even for Maine—but it is the real thing, and we have to support our lobster men.

Eggs from Buttermilk Hill Farm!

Considered savory yogurt? Plain Greek, cooked spinach, pinch of nutmeg, dash of salt (or to taste), and I would have used toasted slivered almonds if I’d had them! The garlic bread worked well.

We have been working long days to ready the camp for renters. It won’t look this good again until we return for our allotted time and do it all over again!

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Greetings from the Polar Vortex!

Isn’t this rich and beautifully golden?

Damn it’s cold!  It’s 5 degrees outside, and I’m wanting soup.  White bean soup appears to be all the rage these days, and why not?  Here’s my most recent take:

White Bean Soup with Parmesan Broth

This is easiest made in pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

1 cup of white beans that have been soaked in water to cover overnight.
1 to 2 tablespoons of grape seed oil1 onion, chopped.
6 whole garlic cloves, peeled.
1 cup of chopped carrots.
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar.
Parmesan rinds, chopped if you can cut through them (you can’t have too many!).
8 cups water, chicken, beef or vegetable broth, or any combination thereof.

Heat the grape seed oil until very hot.  Don’t worry; it can take it!  Add the onion and the garlic and cook until soft.  Add the carrots and the white beans.  After the beans and carrots start to wilt, add the Parmesan rinds and the liquid.  Cover the pressure cooker and bring to the highest pressure point.  Cook at top speed for 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat, and let the pressure knob go all the way back down.  Open the cooker and remove the rind with some beans and vegetable.  Puree in the food processor and add back to the pot.  The rind can have a slightly bitter taste, but you want it for the flavor.  I have found that apple cider vinegar is the best way to counteract the bitterness.  In fact, I often add 1/4 of vinegar during cooking and another 1/4 cup once the cooking has finished.  A tablespoon of tomato paste wouldn’t hurt either.

There are a couple of alternate endings to this recipe if you don’t want the chewiness of the Parmesan.  The first is that the Parmesan rind can be simply removed and discarded rather than pureed and put back in.  The second is that the soup can be strained before serving once the puree has been added back in.  That gives you the best of both worlds:  the savory quality of the Parm and a nice clear broth.

A nice thing about this soup is that, because of the Parmesan, you can keep adding broth and beans, and keeping the soup going until the pureed rind is gone.

Dark chocolate and milk chocolate chewy and salty brownies, and some pumpkin seed brittle for a friend’s brrrthday.

I made the brittle the way I always do, but substituted the seeds for the pistachios and gave it a pinch of pumpkin pie spice.  I’m finding it oddly addictive.  It was an intriguing idea, but is it really any good?  Stay tuned for the verdict from the brrrrthday girl!

Hoppin’ John, and White Bean with Kale Soup . . . and some DnD news!

A holiday surprise from the Goddess of All Things Domestic! Homemade membrillo (are you kidding me?), homemade Meyer Lemon Marmalade (the gold standard), a hunk of Manchego (my favorite cheese), and, where did she find them? Jane Austen bandaids!! The Goddess is amazing!

The party’s over.  No more cookies for a while . . . or any other rich food for that matter.  It’s time to settle down to winter, and warm, nourishing comfort foods.  Easy on the butter fat and sugar.  Easy on the waistline.

A great way to start the year is Hoppin’ John, a traditional Southern dish of cow peas and rice with bacon, onion and collards.  There are many variations, and it’s very simple to make, especially if you use a pressure cooker.  It’s eaten on January 1st in order to ensure good luck and prosperity for the new year.  I used green peas instead of collards and topped it off with a mixture of Greek yogurt and feta cheese.  A little lime juice, freshly squeezed or some grated orange zest.

Simply put, it’s just delicious.

Another great meal for the New Year is a white bean and kale soup, or any variation of Caldo Verde, the great Spanish soup from Galicia.  (Oh yes.  I know that the Portuguese claim it as theirs!) Again, with a pressure cooker, it’s so easy. For the version pictured above:   Soak a cup of white beans for a few hours.  Soften a chopped onion and some garlic in oil, and add the soaked beans.  Add about 6 cups of a combination of broth and tomato puree.  Any broth will do — vegetable, beef or chicken.   Cover the pressure cooker and bring to high heat.  Once it has reached high heat, cook for 15 minutes.  You can add the kale at the beginning, but I like to steam the kale separately with some garlic cloves and add it at the end.  You can also add cut up parmesan rinds at the beginning, and some grated parmesan cheese at the end.

These are great healthy comfort meals, prepared quickly and easily.

And the DnD news?  Just a quick programming note:  DishnDat will be published a little less frequently this month.  The reason?  By the end of January, you should see a brand spanking new and improved DishnDat, complete with recipe index!  There is a lot of back end work to do, and I don’t want to drag it on for too long.  Sooooo, in order to get the new version out as soon as possible, I thought it best to cut back on the posts temporarily.  I will miss you, but, in the end,  the transfer will be seamless; you won’t have to do anything, but keep on reading!

They say we are in for a blizzard!

Happy New Year . . . Our 1/1 Tradition . . . The Open House

Beautiful flowers from beautiful friends.

Another year shot to hell?  Welcome to the club!  Every year, Mr. Darcy and I host an open house on New Year’s Day.  From 2 p.m. until whenever.  The company is always pretty much the same:  good friends and family.  Every  year we add a few new people, so what started out maybe 20 years ago with 10 has grown to over 40 by now.  The menu is always pretty much the same, too:  White Grass Chili, cookies, vulgarités (the vulgarités platters of previous years, went uneaten, so they have been replaced by a few carrots), hummus and crackers.

In recent years, we’ve hired a student from the Columbia University Bartending Agency to help.  She stands behind our kitchen counter, dishing out chili, pouring wine and soda, and generally keeping people out of the kitchen, where they seem to want to congregate, for some reason.  And I get to enjoy my own party!

They do love that chili!  It’s vegetarian, but it tastes meaty, so it pleases everyone.   I take no credit for it, by the way.  The recipe is from the White Grass Café:  Cross Country Cooking, by Laurie Little and Mary Beth Gwyer.  The White Grass Café is a natural foods café at the White Grass cross-country ski center in  the Canaan Valley in West Virginia.  The Canaan (pronounced kuh-nane) Valley is well-known for winter ski resorts, bountiful snowfalls (white grass), and amazing natural beauty any time of the year.

My adaptation of the White Grass Café  White Grass Chili recipe follows:

2 16 oz. cans pinto beans (drain, but save the bean broth)
2 tsp salt
2 tbs. olive/canola oil
2 medium onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups grated carrots
3 large red (or any color) bell peppers, chopped
1/3 raw bulgur (this is what gives the chili a wonderful meaty texture)
1 tbs. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 tbs. chili powder
dash cayenne pepper
1 16 oz. can chopped whole tomatoes
1 16 oz. can tomato puree

(Note:  the above proportions are for 6 people. The recipe can be doubled, tripled, etc., without any adjustments.)

Saute the onions and garlic in oil until soft.  Add carrots and bell pepper, and cook until they start to soften and the carrot no longer smells raw.  Add bulgur, spices, herbs and one cup water (or one cup bean broth).  Mix well.  Add beans, one cup bean broth (you may have to add water or vegetable stock to make one cup).  If you don’t care if the chili is vegetarian, you can certainly use chicken or beef broth.  Mix well.  Add  the chopped tomatoes and the tomato purée.  Simmer 45 minutes or until the bulgur has softened.  Don’t let it dry out.  Check frequently in case you need to add more liquid.  Check and adjust seasonings to taste:  salt, peppers, and herbs.  Remember that the longer you cook it and the lower the heat, the thicker the texture, and the better it tastes!

Almost 10 quarts of White Grass Chili!

I make multiples of the basic recipe at least a month ahead of time and keep it in the freezer.  I take it out a couple of days before the party so that it has time to defrost.  For the party, it gets reheated slowly, and sits on the stove top on very low heat for serving.

The toppings:  grated jack and cheddar cheese; sour cream, chopped red onion, and tortilla chips.

One of the first years we had this party, a friend’s four-year old asked if “cookies would be involved,” and, since then, I have never failed to bake cookies.  After a lot of years of experimentation, I’ve found that snicker doodles

vanilla raisin cookies,

and chocolate chip cookies

are the big winners.

I used my new Tovolo perfect cube trays to prepare cookie dough ahead of time.  What a bonus!  As it turned out, I had to use them twice — 150 cookies and counting!

Clementines, bananas, and grapes, oh my!

Not to mention homemade peppermint bark, holiday spiced pralines, butter crunch toffee, and pistachio brittle!

Peppermint bark with white and dark chocolate.

Holiday spiced pralines from the New York Times.

Pistachio brittle.

Butter crunch toffee.

Lots of coffee, of course, for those still tasting the hair of the dog from the night before!.

Mr. Darcy plays show tunes on the piano, and everyone sings, however well or badly.  Every year, it’s another openin’, another show, and each year we manage to do it again.

Here’s my New Year’s resolution for 2014:

Enjoy!!!

HAPPY 2014!

A White House Tour. . . and a White House Recipe

“Bo” and “Sunny” greet visitors at the entrance of the White House tour.

If you’ve never taken a tour of the White House, I highly recommend it.  We met Popeye and his family in Washington, DC, the weekend before Christmas, and were lucky enough to get a White House tour early Saturday morning.

Despite Mrs. Popeye’s request to meet Michelle, the FFOTUS was in Hawaii, and we were on our own!

No Lincoln Bedroom either, but, despite being advised to the contrary, we were allowed to take photographs, after all!

The Red Room, above, is one of the parlor rooms — Red, Blue, and Green — on the State Floor. Eleanor Roosevelt used it to host women reporters who were excluded from presidential press conferences.  Here’s another view:

The Blue Room is home to the official White House Christmas Tree.  The tree honors military families, and features holiday cards sent in by children living on military bases, and made in the shape of their home states.

The Blue Room.

The State Dining Room. Portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

The East Room. Tributes to the Arts are broadcast from here.

Holiday decoration from the East Room.

Draperies in the State Dining Room.

I tried to imagine having dinner at the White House, but I can’t even imagine myself in a gown and real shoes!

Bubba!

The Library.

I get off a tourist shot from inside the White House!

For our self-guided tour, we were each given a little booklet entitled Gather Around:  Holidays at the White House, and yes, we are finally getting to the cake!  Included in the booklet is a recipe for a Cranberry Upside Down Cake (a recipe from the White House Pastry Kitchen).

As thousands of people have this recipe now, I am sure I am not violating any copyright laws by reprinting it here, with some modifications, because it doesn’t quite work as written — shades of http://www.healthcare.gov? The problem with the original recipe is the unpleasant metallic after-taste of the baking soda, which should have been neutralized by the orange juice, an acid. I have corrected for that, and my comments and modifications are in bold italics.

Ingredients:
For bottom of cake pan:
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 to 2 cups  fresh cranberries to completely cover the bottom of the pan with cranberries in one layer.  Note:  I always keep a bag of fresh cranberries in the freezer; you can use them straight from the freezer.

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided in half
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or fiori di sicilia
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk (instead of sifting the baking soda with the other dry ingredients, you can dissolve it in the milk or buttermilk to kill the metallic taste of the baking soda)

Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350
Grease a 9″ cake pan, and place a parchment circle on the bottom.  I also like to use cake strips to keep layer cakes even.

In a small saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together.
Press mixture on the bottom of the cake pan, and add the cranberries.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Then, sift twice more. Set aside.

I love my old wooden sieve; it works so much better than the rotary ones.

In the bowl of your mixer,  beat the butter with half of the sugar until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the orange juice.  It will look curdled; not to worry. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the vanilla or fiori di sicilia.  Scrape down the side of the bowl, and add the flour mixture alternatively with the milk.  Beat at high speed until just incorporated, but don’t over-beat.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the other half of the sugar until the whites hold a firm peak.  With a large spatula gently fold the beaten egg whites into the cake batter in two additions.

Pour the batter into the cake pan containing the topping.

Drop the pan from a few inches above the counter, just to make sure the batter is evenly distributed.  Don’t worry about egg white peaking out.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 60 minutes.  The top of the cake should be browned, it should be starting to pull away from the side of the pan, and a toothpick inserted at the center of the cake should come out clean.  Start checking the cake at 30 minutes.  Note: It can jiggle a little. 

Place as is on a wire rack for 15 minutes to cool.  Run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake and then flip onto a serving plate.

While I was napping, Mr. Darcy helped himself.

Here are photos of my version after I tweaked the recipe.  It was lighter and more flavorful, and, above all, that metallic taste was gone.

Out of the oven and cooling on a rack.

As you can see, there are still some bald spots, so use as many cranberries as you can cram in.

Mr. Darcy says this version is “really” good. Hmmm.

Not to be all up in the White House Pastry Chef’s face or anything, but, I have to say that my version is definitely better.

What can I say? I just love pandas!

Tortilla Española . . . Olé!

Ah, España!  I’m always thinking about Spain, but never more so than at this time of year.  My first trip to Spain was in the month of January.  Popeye was five years old, and we took off from Newark Airport in the middle of a snow and sleet storm.  They kept washing down the wings, so that ice could not accumulate.  In those pre-9/11 days, Mr. Darcy watched from the terminal as we took off.  Our Spanish friend, or as Shakespeare would say, “Spain,” met us on the other side.  Popeye dropped his teddy bear on the luggage carousel, and, to this day, we laugh about how Buddy went for a ride in Barajas, as we, many of the waiting passengers, and every available attendant chased after him!

It was on that first trip, that Spain introduced us to one of his friends, Agustín, an idiosyncratic chef from Galicia, who was traveling through Madrid, on his way to open a restaurant in San Sebastian.  Agustín taught me how to make that wonderful staple of every Spanish home, bar, and restaurant:  the Tortilla Española, part omelet, part frittata, and all Española!

Melissa Clark’s Good Appetite column in this week’s NY Times was dedicated to the Tortilla Española.  It’s a very good recipe – just eggs, potatoes and onion — and it works very well.  Even better, she solved one of my biggest problems, which is how to get it puffy rather than flat.  And the answer is olive oil, and lots of it!  http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/melissa_clark/.

Agustín did not believe in using onion at all, or olive oil to cook the potatoes. Having seen the potato fryers in every home kitchen, I can understand why.  Typically, the potatoes for Tortilla Española are cooked in a fryer in a neutral vegetable oil that can be re-used for food other than potatoes. When I explained that I don’t have a fryer at home, he told me to use canola oil and cook the potatoes in a frying pan.  Of course, he wanted me to use a ton of oil, which I really resisted.  And I paid the price, which is to say, I always got a tasty, but flat, tortilla as a result.  I thought that I could get away with less oil, because I have Teflon-lined tortilla pans.  The easier to flip the tortilla, my dear!  But, no.

 Melissa Clark’s recipe calls for upwards of one cup of olive oil (OMG), but, as she points out, most of it stays behind, as in a fryer.  Using a fryer, you would lift the basket and let the potatoes cool, allowing the oil to drip back into the body of the machine.  This way, you remove the potatoes from the pan to a sieve over a large bowl, and allow the oil to drip into the bowl as the potatoes cool.

The potatoes are not supposed to brown, but no pasa nada if they do!  They will still be delicious.

So far, so good.  There are two super good things about her recipe as opposed to what I learned from Agustín.  First, she uses peeled Yukon gold potatoes, which cook quickly, and [aside] do not have to be peeled. G.  Agustín insisted on using baking potatoes, which take much longer to cook, are best cooked in a fryer, and definitely do need to be peeled.  Second, she slices the potatoes in half lengthwise and then across.  Agustín insisted that the potatoes be cut unevenly.  The technique he taught me was to take a small knife and chip away at each potato until I had a pile of oddly shaped chunks.  Clark’s method, for some reason, yields virtually the same result.  Not oddly shaped, but definitely uneven.  Maybe it’s just me!

Agustín did not approve of onions in Tortilla Española, but, because Clark cooks the onions and the potatoes together, it’s a non-issue as far as I’m concerned.  I like onions in my Tortilla Española, and I have eaten versions with ham, peas, and even shrimp.  Once you’re comfortable with the technique, you can knock these out and keep them in the refrigerator for a few days, assuming they last that long.  Tortilla Española is sliced like a pie, or criss-crossed for smaller portions.  It’s great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  It can be served with a salad, beans, tomato sauce, or all of the above.  It’s a terrific snack and makes a wonderful party dish, which is  especially impressive when giant-sized.  Agustín’s formula was one medium potato and two eggs per person.

Melissa Clark doesn’t flip the tortilla, she puts it in the oven.  I do flip it, using my double pan set, and then I flip it out onto a tortilla plate.

 

 Like a classic French omelet, the Tortilla Española should not brown.  Last night, however, I was distracted and left the tortilla in the pan for too long, so it browned a little.  I’m here to tell you that it tastes just as good, so, unless the aesthetics are critical to you, don’t sweat it.

¡Buen provecho!

Wishing you a Joyous Christmas Day

From the White House tour entrance to the original mansion.

Click below for something beautiful!

‘Tis the Season to . . . eat sweets . . .

My leaning tower of goodies did not quite make it to DC with the BAKE ribbon intact!

The weekend before Christmas, we traveled down to DC to meet the Popeyes, who traveled up from North Carolina,  for some family fun.  With many other relatives in the area, Christmas celebrants and not, it was quite the occasion, and I was bound to do my part.  Four dozen cookies:

Snickerdoodles — regular and gluten-free;

and Chocolate Chip Espresso;

three kinds of candy:  pistachio brittle — some plain and some with rosemary;

 butter crunch toffee;

and Peppermint Bark.

And Ottolenghi cinnamon hazelnut meringues, especially for Popeye.

Cookies, cookies, cookies, and on a moment’s notice . . .

This is way too cool.  It’s not my idea; I got it from KingArthurFlour.com.  These silicone Tovolo Perfect Cube Ice Trays come in cool colors, sets of two, and they are perfect for preparing cookie dough ahead of time and storing it in the freezer.

When Mr. Darcy wants a cookie, I can just pop some out and bake.

Case in point:  I test the cubes with a King Arthur Flour recipe for barley and chocolate chip cookies.  The recipe makes enough dough for almost 45 cookies.  Using a tablespoon-sized scoop, I filled two of the ice cube trays, which hold 15 each, put the remainder in little balls on a parchment-lined sheet tray, and put the whole kit and caboodle in the freezer.

Once the dough was frozen solid, I tested one of the cubes, and, indeed, the dough just pops out.  As a test, I removed the baking sheet out of the freezer and baked that batch.  Nyam nyam nyam, says Mr. Darcy.  The barley flour is soft and sweet, and works perfectly as a frozen cookie dough.

I liked it so much that I bought two more sets, which I have already filled with a variety of cookie doughs,  so that I can satisfy Mr. Darcy’s cravings on the spur of the moment.  In the mood for an oatmeal raisin cookie?  Just give me 10 minutes!  Nice!

 

Humpday Buckwheat Pasta with Salmon . . .

I’m not proud.  And, in a pinch, I will buy prepared foods.  One local supermarket has great rotisserie chicken, and it’s organic!  It’s as good or better than I can do, and it costs about the same.  Another has poached salmon.  OK. Mine is better, but the cost is the same, and the convenience and the-it-doesn’t-stink-up-the-apartment-all-night factor is priceless.  And, of course, whenever I’m in the Village, I stock up on pasta for the freezer from Raffetto’s.

Case in point:  buckwheat pasta, poached salmon, a quick roux (which can be made with margarine and skim milk), and some frozen peas.  The salmon can take on the buckwheat, and you’ve got a healthy meal in 11 minutes, assuming you use the Lékué pasta maker!  OK, Stephanie Cmar, I’m here.  Let’s make you Top Chef this season!