Rainbow Carrots

(I wanted to share my most recent painting, Rainbow Carrots, even though carrots have nothing to do with this post. )

The first step is to dispose of all of the half-filled jars of mystery sauces that have accumulated since we returned from Italy last spring. The second, and perhaps more difficult part is resisting the jars of exotic sauces at the market. I will make do with only three jars of sauce, mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise. The mustard is grainy Dijon mustard, the ketchup is what remains of the homemade ketchup I made as a Christmas gift for Charles, and I will make mayo as we need it.

Usually, mayo is made with either an egg yolk or a whole egg but recently I made Maionese de leite, a mayonnaise that comes from Portugal. This creamy, egg free sauce, made with milk and flavored with a hint of garlic is less sticky and bit more watery than traditional mayo but it can be substituted for traditional mayo. An immersion blender is necessary to make it. Here’s how I did it:

Homemade mayonnaise is delicious whether it’s traditional egg based mayo or creamy milk mayo but, if your New Year’ resolution is to spend less time in the kitchen, mayo from the grocery store is the right choice for you. Happy New Year!

Here’s a link to my recipe for Mayo made with eggs. 

Download and print a label for your homemade mayo here.

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I don’t know whether it was Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, a gift from a new friend, daily lunches of pate and camembert with a crusty baguette from the French Market or the fact that ketchup was made in the Heinz factory, a few miles from my home in Pittsburg, that turned me into a ketchup snob. Ketchup had to go. There was no ketchup in my kitchen from mid 1965 until December 2011. Yes, it’s back. There is a jar of ketchup in the fridge and I’m planning to give jars of ketchup to my most sophisticated, foodie friends for Christmas this year.

It won’t be Heinz ketchup, it will be ketchup from Carol’s Vermont Kitchen. My willingness to re-consider ketchup came about because I wanted to give a bright red, edible gift for Christmas. Ketchup is an unusual gift and may result in a holiday smiles. I read ketchup recipes in old cookery books, learned a fair amount of ketchup history, modified a couple of recipes and eventually made a batch of lovely red, nothing like the stuff from the grocery store, ketchup. Here’s how I made it:

Ketchup

1 – 28 ounce can pureed tomatoes
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
sea salt to taste

I put all the ingredients, except the salt and pepper, into a slow cooker and stirred the mixture until it was combined. I set the slow cooker on high, covered it and cooked it for two hours, stirring occasionally. I removed the lid and continued cooking the ketchup, on high, for forty-five minutes until it ‘plopped’ off a spoon. I added the black pepper and salt and turned off the slow cooker. When the ketchup was cool, I stirred it and transferred it to a wide mouth quart jar and put it in the fridge.

I’ve served this lovely red sauce warm with meatloaf, Charles used it right from the fridge on ham and cheese sandwiches and we’ve stirred it into bowls of hot buttered pasta.

In the seventeenth century, English sailors returned from China with a pickled-fish sauce, called ke-tsiap. That brown sauce went through many changes, traveled to Malaya, eventually met tomatoes and ke-tsiape name morphed to kechap. Before manufacturers settled on ketchup, it was also called catchup, katsup, catsip, kotchup, kitsip, catsoup, cornchop, katsock and cutchpuck. Not only does ketchup add flavor, but some studies show that it may be a powerful tool in the fight against cancer and heart disease.

If this ketchup trivia is not enough to impress my foodie friends – I’ll tell them that ketchup can be used to clean, antique, copper utensils.

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There will be weeks of  marathon of mixing, stirring, slicing, dicing, creaming and blending. It was time to make meals that are simple to prepare, have a limited number of ingredients and are even better the second time around. Corn Chowder is one way to do that.

Chowder is defined as any of a variety of soups, made with milk, enriched with salt pork and thickened with flour. It has been around since the sixteenth century when it was considered “poor man’s fare”. The word chowder may come from the French chaudiere, a pot used by fishermen in France to make a hearty fish stew by cooking fish with milk and vegetables, or it may come from jowter the Old English term for a person who sells fish.

Made with bacon, potatoes, corn and milk, the soup I made was chowder without fish because the closest fish to my pot was a twenty minute drive through the snow and eliminating trips to the market was part of my new resolve. I’m confident that the recipe police will not come to my post holiday kitchen to give me a ticket. Here’s how I made it:

Corn Chowder

Although traditional chowder is flavored with salt pork, I used half a pound of bacon cut in half-inch strips to give the soup a smoky taste. I cooked it in my large stockpot over medium heat until the fat had rendered, about ten minutes. I added two medium onions to the pot and when the onions were soft and translucent, I stirred in one heaping tablespoon of flour.

After the flour had cooked for two minutes, I stirred in two cups of water and one pound of unpeeled, yellow potatoes that had been washed and cut into half-inch cubes. When the water began to boil, I lowered the heat, covered the pot and cooked the soup. When the potatoes were tender, I added one pound of frozen corn kernels, three cups of whole milk and one Knorr vegetable bouillon cube. I heated the soup, without letting it boil, and simmered it for five minutes to cook the corn. Topped with a handful of chopped, flat-leaf parsley and a big grind of black pepper the soup was ready to serve in bowls that had been heated in the microwave.

I served the bowls of steaming chowder with wedges of hot corn bread that I had baked in a cast iron skillet and then slathered with butter. This dinner made us forget that the thermometer read minus two and it was good enough to turn the most persnickety recipe police officer into a lifelong friend. Best of all there was enough soup for dinner the next evening and lunch the day after that.

Chowder has become a winter staple and I make a vegetarian version by using a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter instead of bacon. When gluten intolerant friends come to dinner, I leave out the flour and serve a bowl of saltines for the more tolerant diners who want to thicken their chowder by crumbling crackers into their soup. Corn chowder is transformed into fish chowder by adding, after the potatoes are tender, three quarters of a pound of mild white fish, cod or haddock, cut into one inch chunks. The soup is simmered until the fish is cooked, about five minutes.

If the recipe police have invited themselves to dinner, I replace the corn with two cans of clams and the water with clam juice and serve a most presentable clam chowder.

Click here to download and print an ingredients list and recipe.

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A gluten free, complete protein it was called the ‘mother of all grains’.

With all of this to recommend it, I decided to add it to my pantry. My first quinoa creation was a resounding failure – a mushy mixture that tasted like wet laundry, (Actually, I have never eaten wet or dry laundry, but that’s the best description I can come up with).

Clearly, it is important not to overcook it and to add flavor at each step of preparation.

My second try, a salad inspired by the fresh flavors of tabbouleh, was a great success with no resemblance to wet laundry. Here’s how I made it:

Quinoa Salad

I rinsed two cups of quinoa in cold water to get rid of the bitter coating before putting it into a heavy bottomed, shallow pan over medium high heat. Ten minutes of constant stirring and the seeds were light brown and aromatic.

Initially the quinoa stuck to the bottom of the pan, but when it was ready it began to dance around in the bottom of the pan, (perhaps inspired by the reputation of its tumble weed cousin).

With the pan off the heat I stirred in two cups of vegetable broth, then increased the heat, brought it to a boil,  reduced the heat, covered the pan and left it to simmer until al dente, about eighteen minutes. I drained the remaining liquid from the quinoa, and set it aside, covered for five minutes, before fluffing with a fork and transferring to a large bowl to cool. These steps resulted in a flavorful and non mushy base for the salad.

I added two cans of rinsed and drained beans, one soy and the other white kidney, the chopped leaves of a bunch of flat leaf parsley, half a cup of sliced scallions, a pint of halved cherry tomatoes and the zest of one large lemon.

For the dressing, I combined the juice of the lemon, a large tablespoon of grainy Dijon mustard, half a cup of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Gently stirred together and served at room temperature, it was a crowd pleaser at a vegetarian dinner of three substantial salads.

notes: any canned beans will work, you may want to brighten the taste with the addition of a bit of wine vinegar, the parsley could be replaced with basil, purple onion instead of scallions, a minced chili pepper or a bit of cayenne pepper would add some heat. Add or subtract flavors to suit your palate.

Download and quinoa salad recipe with an ingredients list here.

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The dark pink lentils in my pantry, labeled either as Red or Egyptian lentils in the market, don’t have a seed coat so they will disintegrate into a smooth puree as the soup cooks. Here’ s how I made it.

Lentil Soup

To begin, I sauteed one leek, one onion and three medium carrots, all cleaned and sliced, in one tablespoon of unsalted butter and one tablespoon of olive oil for about five minutes or until they were softened.

Then I stirred in flavors from the East, two large cloves of garlic, crushed, one tablespoon grated fresh ginger, one rounded teaspoon ground cumin, one teaspoon turmeric, half a teaspoon ground coriander and a large pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and cooked another minute before I added two cups of rinsed red lentils and five cups of water.

I covered the pot, brought it to a boil, reduced the heat to a simmer and cooked until the lentils were tender, about forty five minutes.

To finish the soup, I stirred in two teaspoons of vegetarian soup base, one diced zucchini and a tablespoon of fresh lime juice, adjusted the salt and pepper, and simmered for five more minutes.

Two slices of buttered toast and a bowl of lentil soup, a perfect dinner for a chilly Spring evening.

Download and print lentil soup recipe with an ingredients list here.

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Pre-game activities begin after lunch, the game, liberally dotted with commercials, starts at six, is interrupted by the half-time show, then more of the game, and finally the wrap-up. It’s no wonder that most hotels offering Super Bowl packages have a four-day minimum stay – it must take at least two days to recover.

I’m not a football fan. My mind wanders with the interminable delays. I worry about mortal injuries to the referees and camera operators when I see enormous bodies, protected by even more enormous plastic helmets and shoulder pads flying through the air and landing in heaps. I’ve been told that the creative commercials that debut on Super Bowl Sunday are enough reason to watch but I’d rather be putting finishing touches on Super Bowls, Super Platters and Super Sweets to sustain Super Friends who are eating and drinking, cheering and booing in front of the television.

One Super Bowl party website suggested, “serve everyone’s favorite high fat, finger-licking snack foods. After all, your television set is the focal point, not the food.” (Those are fighting words to a cook.) Another site suggested serving “salami, pepperoni, cheese whiz, chips and dips, beer and hot sauce, zingers like salami & cheese stuffed pepperochini.” (I wonder if beer and hot sauce is new mixed drink?) Tailgate classics like Buffalo wings, chili, and layered dips are all possibilities, but I want Super Food, healthy food that is not fussy to prepare and has enough flavor to be a bit of a distraction from the game.

Chickpeas and chickpea flour, also called besan and gram flour, are on the Super Food team I’m inviting to be part of my Super Bowl menu. They taste good and are an excellent source of protein, fiber, iron, potassium and B vitamins. It takes only a minute to make the batter for Besan flatbread that can be served either hot from the oven or at room temperature. It meets my requirements for a super finger food.

Hummus, a party regular at my house, is also a Super Snack. This blend of ancient ingredients – chickpeas, sesame seeds, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil is readily available at the market but when made at home it is absolutely fresh, with a minimum number of ingredients and is preservative free. When combined with warm pita bread, it is a complete protein that will build muscles so necessary for passing and blocking on the gridiron. (Not bad for a non-sports writer!) Best of all, homemade hummus costs half as much and is at least twice as good as store bought. I took a bowl of hummus, surrounded with carrot sticks to a potluck lunch last Sunday and it disappeared before the chocolate chip cookies.

Here’s how I made Besan Flat Bread and Hummus:

Besan Flat Bread

I put one cup of besan and one teaspoon of salt into a bowl and stirred constantly with a whisk, as I slowly added water, about one and half cups, to make a slurry with the consistency of thin pancake batter. I made it in the morning, covered with a cloth and left on the counter to ‘rest’ for several hours. The batter can be baked immediately but the texture will be better and the bread will have a more complex flavor if the batter sits at room temperature for several hours before it is baked.

I set the oven at 450 degrees, peeled and thinly sliced two medium shallots and a handful of cauliflower florets. I put the shallots, cauliflower and three tablespoons of grape seed oil into a ten-inch cast iron skillet. After two minutes in the oven, I gave the vegetables a quick stir, poured the batter in and returned the skillet to the oven. In 30 minutes, the bread was brown and the crisp edge had pulled away from the pan. I used a spatula to lift it out onto a cutting board, sprinkled it with a pinch of sea salt, and let it cool for a couple of minutes before I cut it into twelve wedges. It disappeared in less time than it takes a football team to figure out the next play.

Onions, scallions or chives can be substituted for the shallots and olive or canola oil can replace the grape seed oil. I sometimes add either a tablespoon of fresh rosemary or a teaspoon of black mustard seeds or ground cumin along with the sliced vegetables to vary the flavor.

Hummus

I drained one 19-ounce can of chickpeas and reserved the liquid. I used a food processor to chop one small garlic clove and then added the chickpeas and two tablespoons of tahini. When the mixture was coarsely chopped, I added the juice of one lemon and slowly added the reserved liquid until the mixture was creamy, about five tablespoons. I put the hummus into a shallow bowl and topped it with a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

If you want to add color, a pinch of paprika is all you need. You could present the hummus in grand style by putting the warmed pita bread into the Super Bowl XLIV Snack Helmet that I saw on the internet for a mere $64.99.

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Besan Flat Bread List

• 1 c besan/chickpea flour
• 1 t salt
• 2 shallots
• 3/4 c cauliflower florets

Hummus List

• 1 19-ounce can chickpeas
• 1 small garlic clove
• 2 T tahini
• 1 lemon
• olive oil

Summer Salad with Shrimp and Melon

I pulsed two cloves of garlic with a teaspoon of kosher salt in a food processor. When it was chopped, I added two pounds of peeled and deveined raw shrimp. I pulsed the shrimp mixture until it was coarsely ground but not pureed. I heated two tablespoons of vegetable oil over high heat in a large frying pan and added the shrimp and two teaspoons of light brown sugar. I cooked the ground shrimp for about four minutes, stirring often, until it was cooked through, and then put it into a bowl to cool while I prepared the rest of the ingredients. Chicken or pork can be prepared the same way but may take a bit longer.

For the dressing, I heated a quarter of a cup of fish sauce and three tablespoons of light brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the sugar was completely dissolved, I removed the pan from the heat and added a large pinch of cayenne pepper, half a cup of fresh lime juice and one thinly sliced jalapeno pepper, and set it aside.

I prepared the rest of the ingredients before I assembled the individual salads. I blanched half a pound of green beans in boiling water and, when they were tender, I rinsed them with cold water to stop the cooking and drained them on a towel. I cooked four ounces of thin rice noodles in boiling salted water until tender but not mushy, rinsed them in cold water, drained them and stirred in a teaspoon of vegetable oil.

I used a salad spinner to rinse separately – a head of tender butter lettuce, half a pound of bean sprouts, a bunch of fresh mint, a bunch of basil, and a bunch of cilantro. I cut a eight scallions in half and then halved them lengthwise, coarsely chopped half a cup of honey-roasted peanuts, trimmed the roots and larger leaves from a bunch of radishes, and cut a seedless cucumber into four-inch matchsticks. I removed the dark green rind from a quarter of a watermelon and cut the flesh into thin slices.

I arranged the vegetables, herbs and melon likes spokes of a wheel on six over-sized dinner plates, put the shrimp in the center, spooned on the dressing and sprinkled on the chopped peanuts.

All of the components of this salad can be prepared and refrigerated up to eight hours before being served. If any of your guests question the use of fish sauce, tell them that if they have used Worcestershire sauce to add flavor to a burger, they have already eaten a sauce made with fermented anchovies.

Summer Salad List

• Shrimp
• Vegetable oil
• Brown sugar
• Fish sauce
• Cayenne pepper
• Lime
• Jalapeno pepper
• Green beans
• Rice noodles
• Lettuce
• Bean sprouts
• Mint
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Scallions
• Honey-roasted peanuts
• Radishes
• Cucumber
• Watermelon

When he played his 78-rpm record of Perry Como singing Papaya Mama, my sister and I jumped around and tried to dance like Carmen Miranda. She was the Brazilian samba singer who wore hats piled high with fruit and the inspiration for Chiquita Banana. I didn’t think of papaya as something to eat until many years later.

The first time I tasted papaya, a friend had whirled it in a blender with milk and ice. The drink was a lovely pale, peachy-orange color and tasted terrible. I next tasted it a few years later with pineapple, mango and banana as part of a tropical fruit salad on a holiday in Puerto Rico and I didn’t mind it. It had a nice texture and I enjoyed it topped with a bit of lime juice.

Papaya is a native of Mexico and it is cultivated in most tropical and subtropical countries around the world. It grows on a tree-like plant that looks a bit like a small umbrella of leaves atop a very long stem. There are two types of papayas, Mexican and Hawaiian. Hawaiian papayas are small, usually weighing about a pound. Mexican papayas are much larger and may weigh as much as ten pounds. I prefer the slightly less intense flavor of the Mexican papaya. The edible seeds from the hollow center of a ripe papaya have a spicy, pepper flavor and are used in salad dressings or salsas.

Packed with vitamins, minerals and natural fiber, papaya delivers a nutritional punch. Indigenous Americans have used papaya, rich in an enzyme called papain, to tenderize tough meat for thousands of years. Rubbing papaya peel on to skin rashes, insect bites, jellyfish stings and burns is a common, natural remedy where papayas grow. Papaya extract is sold in tablet form as a remedy for digestive problems.

Although there are lots of good reasons to eat papaya, the best reason is that it is delicious, particularly when featured in an Indian inspired vegetarian dinner salad. Here’s how I made it:

Papaya Salad with Baked Brown Rice

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees, heated two and a half cups of water, one tablespoon of unsalted butter and one tablespoon of kosher salt in a saucepan. I put one and a half cups of short grain brown rice into an eight-inch square, ceramic baking dish and when the water came to a boil, I poured it over the rice. I covered the dish tightly with aluminum foil and baked it for one hour. I uncovered the rice and fluffed it with a fork.

As Victoria hummed Papaya Mama, I peeled and de-seeded the papaya. I cut it into one-inch chunks and put it into a large salad bowl. I cut one medium red onion into quarter inch dice, put the onion into a small bowl, added a teaspoon of salt and covered it with cold water to eliminate the raw onion tang. I added to the papaya one large red pepper cut into half-inch chunks, one finely minced jalapeno pepper, half a cup of walnuts, half a cup of raisins, the leaves from a bunch of cilantro, the rinsed and drained onion and the cooled rice.

For the dressing, I blended together two teaspoons of ground cumin, one teaspoon of ground coriander, one minced clove of garlic, three tablespoons of red wine vinegar, three tablespoons of olive oil and half a cup of apricot jam. I stirred the dressing into the rice and papaya mixture.

I baked the short grain brown rice a couple of hours before I put the salad together so that it would room temperature when I assembled the salad. My original recipe used mango chutney but I was unable to find it at the market and I have found that either peach or apricot jam works well. You can replace the cilantro with flat leaf parsley and use scallions instead of a red onion.

Our party was a celebration of the musical collaboration of three friends combined with the singing and music making of ten others. I wished that Perry, Carmen and Chiquita had been able to join us.

Papaya Salad List

• Papaya
• Red Onion
• Red Pepper
• Jalapeno Pepper
• Walnuts
• Raisins
• Cilantro
• Brown Rice
• Ground Cumin
• Ground Coriander
• Garlic
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Apricot Jam

Noah cooked the rice and cut the carrots and avocado and I went to the market to get yellow tail tuna and ‘crab with a k’.  Crab with a k or krab is also called imitation crab meat or seafood sticks. Krab originated in Japan and is a type of processed seafood made of ”Surimi” or finely pulverized white fish.

Along with the fish, I found pickled ginger powered wasabi and seaweed sheets called nori in the Asian Food aisle of the well-stocked grocery.

Ella made sushi hand rolls and Dylan opted for peanut butter. Noah and I made sushi for everyone else. Here’ how we did it .

Sushi Rice

Noah combined one and a half cups of sushi rice and two cups water in a medium sauce pan. He brought it to a boil, reduced the heat to low and simmered, covered, for twenty minutes until the water was absorbed.  After the rice had cooled in the pan for ten minutes, he turned the rice into a large bowl and stirred in one third of a cup of Japanese seasoned rice vinegar.

We readied the other components:

• carrots cut into matchsticks
• tuna and avocado cut into strips a quarter of an inch on a side
• krab pieces
• a bowl of  toasted and black sesame seeds
• wasabi powder mixed with water to make a spicy, hot, pale green paste
• pickled ginger in a small serving bowl

and then we set up a do it yourself sushi bar.

Although Ella found the wasabi too spicy, the rest of us enjoyed amazingly clear sinuses for the rest of the day.

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