May 2007 Archives

I'll admit I'm not that good at using my cast iron pan, but I'm getting better, something Patricia can attest to.  I've only been in a situation where I would have set off the smoke alarm once or twice in the past week few months.  And that's just been during heating and cleaning moments.

If you know me, you know I read a lot.  And I buy a lot of books.

And, since we both like to cook, we tend to have a few cookbooks.  Or more than a few. 

But we haven't had much luck with them.  Or I haven't, at least.

Jump to a month or so ago, when I was at Crate and Barrel picking up some little things when I saw a cookbook called The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen and I thought of the two cast iron pans I have, and how little use they get, and how much I want to be able to use them.

So I bought it, owing to my total lack of impulse control.

We've made four recipes from this book.  And we've had four successes.

A fennel-seared pork tenderloin's ingredients proved so good, we've decided the fennel salt itself is worth using over and over on whatever we can.

But the other three recipes were all breads; a fennel-ricotta skillet bread (which, while good, wasn't our favorite), a moist cornbread (which was quite good and will be the basis for another recipe, a cornbread pudding), and tonights fresh baked bread:  herbed skillet bread.

Breads have always scared me, probably because I never had a Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  That makes it all the easier.  I've always had issues with breaking eggs too, but luckily, this recipe doesn't call for any eggs.

The Ingredients

• 1 tblspoon sugar (I used Diabetisweet) - Not local, not organic.
• 1 cup 105F water - Really local.  Right out of the tap.
• 1 package active dry yeast - Organic, Rapunzel brand Rize, not local.
• 2.25 cups of flour - I used local, organic emmer flour from Blue Bird Grain Farms
• 2 teaspoons of sea salt - Not local, that I know of.
• .25 cup + 2 tbl olive oil - organic, but not local.
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced (by the recipe, I diced it) - organic and local.
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped - slightly organic, very local.  Our rosemary plant is right out the back door.  The starter was organic, the dirt likely isn't.  I don't remember.

Recipe is pretty simple.  Sugar and half the water into a bowl with the yeast for five minutes.

Add the other half of the water, flour, .5tsp of salt, 1/4 cup of olive oil.  Stir until it makes dough.  I actually added some extra rosemary the second time I made this, because I wanted a more thorough rosemary taste.  In the end, I'm not sure it actually made a difference. 

 Throw it in the kitchen aid (or knead it manually until smooth).

Ball it up and throw it in a well oiled bowl, saran wrap it and let it sit on the counter for 45 minutes.

Oil up the cast iron pan and press the dough into it. Score the top with a sharp knife and brush the top with olive oil.

Sprinkle the rest of the sea salt, the garlic and the rosemary on top.  The recipe actually calls for sliced garlic, but I minced it instead, thinking it might be better.  Not sure if it was, but I think it works better. 

Let it rise for another 45 minutes.

While it's rising, or near the end of the rising, heat the oven up to 400F and put a shelf in the middle.

Throw the pan in and cook for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from pan immediately after cooking to maintain the crisp bottom. 

And believe me, it has a very crisp bottom.

Drizzle with olive oil and serve it up in wedges.

I like this bread. Even with the emmer flour.  It's salty, rosemary-y, olive oil-y and all around goodness.

Also, before you make the bread, if you wash your cast iron pan and dry it in the oven, make sure you've given the pan time to cool before you put the dough in the pan.  Which I seem to forget.  Almost every time.

As for its effect on my blood sugar, it was pretty good to me.  Especially with the emmer flour. 

One of the great things about Seattle is the sheer variety of food you can find at the farmer's markets. I'm doing some writing for Seattle Metroblogging and part of what I'm doing is a series called 'Meet Your Farmer's Market Vendors'. I pick a vendor every week (sometimes two) and ask them about their products.

The first vendor I interviewed was Sea Breeze Farms. Among other things, they sell eggs. Duck eggs.

It took me a few months, but I finally worked up enough courage to try a duck egg.

Yes, I know. It looks like an egg. I'm not really sure what I was expecting. But it's an egg. The texture was a little meatier than a chicken egg, but overall, it was just an egg.

I think I'm in love. No, not with J. I know I'm in love with him. I think I just might be in love with Emmer. This wonderful grain has let us make something I wasn't sure John would be able to enjoy - risotto. I'm looking forward to making fried rice, chicken cacciatore (which is best served over rice), Asian dishes (also served over rice) and even taking the Emmer flour and making pasta out of it. This could be our ticket to carbs without the blood sugar impact.

We had some asparagus the other night and I just didn't feel like cooking it the way we usually do. So we found a recipe from the Amateur Gourmet - Asparagus Risotto. Now, warning... when we first looked at the link, we were wary. The picture looked... well... I won't go into what it looked like. Needless to say, it's green. But the description sounded fantastic. Our picture looks a little better, but that's because Emmer is brown.

We've never been disappointed by an Amateur Gourmet recipe, however, so we decided to be brave.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• 1 pound asparagus *&
• 1 qt of chicken broth &
• 1 small red onion &
• 4 tbsp butter *&
• 3 tablespoons olive oil &
• 1 cup Emmer (or risotto rice) *&
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 3/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan

Wow! We did pretty well on the local and organic ingredients. We could have even had local wine, although we don't drink white wine often, so we just bought some of those little Sutter Home bottles. Soon we'll make our own chicken broth and even that can be local and organic.

Directions

We cut the tips off the asparagus and set them aside. Then we chopped the remaining stems into one inch pieces.

I boiled some salted water and blanched the asparagus tips for 3 minutes. I strained them out and then boiled the chopped stems for 4 minutes. I strained the chopped stems and blended them in the food processor for a couple minutes until they were mostly smooth. (Keep the tips separate).

I diced a red onion into very small pieces. I love our newly sharpened knives.

Now get ready for a whole lot of stirring. In one pan, I heated the chicken stock on a low heat. I seasoned it with some salt and pepper as well. Then in another saucepan, I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and about a tablespoon and half of olive oil. I sauteed the onion in the butter/oil mixture for 10 minutes over low heat. Then I added a little over a cup of Emmer to the onion mixture and stirred it until the Emmer was coated with the oil.

I added a ladle full of chicken stock to the pan with the Emmer and onions and stirred. Here's the time consuming part. You need to cook the Emmer until the first ladle of chicken stock is almost gone. Then add another ladle. Rinse, repeat.

If you're using rice, this process should take about twenty minutes. If you're using Emmer, it'll be closer to an hour. A few minutes after the last ladle of chicken stock went in, I added the white wine, parmesan cheese, and asparagus tips. Stir and serve.

One of the local cupcake shops sells a lavender cupcake. I think this was my first experience eating something flavored with what I always assumed was merely potpourri.

Well, we were hooked. The lavender gives a very subtle flavor that's... well, almost indescribable other than to say that it tastes just like it smells.

Fast forward to today and our front yard.

That's a lavender plant at least 3 feet in diameter. Well, since I had a day off from work, I decided to experiment. I made lavender shortbread.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• 1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature &
• 1/3 cup diabetisweet (sugar substitute)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped lavender florets *
• 2 1/3 cups Emmer flour *&
• 1/2 cup cornstarch *
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Now, you might be asking yourself why the lavender isn't marked as organic as it came from our yard. Well, we rent, and the landlords have a garden service. I've asked them not to spray, but I can't guarantee they haven't. However, you can't be more local than right out the front door.

Directions:

Cream the butter, sugar, and lavender until light and fluffy. Add the flour, cornstarch, and salt and mix well. Divide the dough in half and form into squares. Seal in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool.

Preheat the oven to 325. Roll the dough until it's about half an inch thick and cut into squares. I used a pizza cutter for this. Place squares on parchment paper or a silpat and pierce each several times with a fork.  

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

These were very good. Since we used Emmer flour, they will be higher fiber and protein than with regular flour. They were a bit crumbly, which I expect for shortbread, but they might have been a bit less crumbly with regular flour. We'll definitely make these again. I was even pleased with how substituting half the sugar worked. I'm always nervous about substituting fake sugar for real sugar in a baking recipe, but these worked quite well.

We don't eat a lot of pasta. Lots of carbs = bad for diabetics, so we tend to do the low carb thing most of the time. Although now that we've found Emmer, we will be having risotto type dishes more often. Yum.

However, on Friday, we felt like pasta. We were also wandering around Pike's Place Market and walked by Pappardelle's Pasta.

Now, before I go on, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed to find out that they are based in Denver, Colorado. So much for local. But, I'll forgive them. They have a huge variety of pasta, including gluten free, low carb, and flavored. We took a look at all of their different varieties, and chose a Calypso Blend. We also picked up their recipe. Here it is for your reading pleasure.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• 1/2 pound pasta
• 2 jalapenos &
• 2 cloves of garlic *&
• 1 inch of ginger &
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 lime *&
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup basil &
• 1 tablespoon olive oil &
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound shrimp
• 1 mango &

Directions

First, we marinated the shrimp. We sliced the jalepenos thinly and mixed them with the grated ginger, minced garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce, lime zest, coconut milk, chopped basil, olive oil, and salt. Then we added the shrimp and marinated it for about an hour.

Once that was done, we strained the shrimp out of the marinade (reserving the marinade in a bowl) and cooked the shrimp in a saucepan for about 5-7 minutes.

When all the shrimp were cooked, we boiled the marinade down until it thickened. We then cooked the pasta and diced the mango.

Finally, we combined the pasta, shrimp, and thickened marinade. We added the diced mango on top and we were done.

When I walked into the University District Farmer's market last weekend, I saw something I'd never seen before on their What's Fresh sign: "Freshly milled flour". W00t! We practically made a beeline for the stuff. But flour wasn't all we found. Bluebird Grain Farms sells freshly milled flour as well as a grain called Emmer. Emmer is a very old grain that isn't very common in the United States. It is still grown and used in Italy, particularly in Tuscany and Umbria. Emmer has a high protein content (up to 16%) and is often good for people with wheat or gluten allergies. We haven't tested this theory yet, but we did bring a sample to a friend with a wheat allergy. Hopefully she'll have something to report back on soon.

I was told that Emmer could be made into a risotto and with it's high protein content, we figured J's blood sugar might tolerate it. So we gave it a try. This recipe was inspired by a risotto recipe from Tasty, but really, it was mostly improvisation.

Ingredients (* = organic, & = local)

• 1 1/2 cups Emmer * &
• 3 oz dried assorted wild mushrooms *&
• 6 cups water
• 1 cup parmesan cheese

We picked up the mushrooms from Foraged and Found, a booth at the local Farmer's Market.

I soaked the mushrooms in 6 cups of hot water for about an hour. When I was done, I poured the water through a strainer into a large pot. The water was a lovely golden brown. I then chopped the mushrooms in to small pieces.

I added the emmer to the water and brought it to a boil. Then I added the mushrooms. I let the mixture boil for 10 minutes, then turned it down to medium and let it simmer for another 40 minutes until the emmer had the texture I was looking for. If you've never made risotto before, it should just look like a gooey mess of rice and mushrooms. I stirred in the grated parmesan cheese and we were ready to eat. (That's salmon with Tom Douglas' Tokyo Rub and Oven Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan with it).

Oh, and for the record, there was no appreciable blood sugar rise from all that risotto.

We're really trying to eat more vegetables and expand our horizons a little. So when one of our favorite farmer's market vendors told us about over wintered cauliflower, we decided we'd give it a try.

J found a recipe on the Food Network web site and we went to work. Well, to be honest, it wasn't that much work.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• Cauliflower *&
• Olive Oil &
• Sliced garlic *&
• Lemon juice *
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parmesan cheese *

I didn't put any proportions in the recipe because really, they aren't even needed. Simply cut the cauliflower into florets and place in a roasting pan. Slice a few cloves of garlic and mix it in with the cauliflower. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice and turn to coat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Roast in a 500 degree oven for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When you remove the cauliflower from the oven, sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese over the top.

So, this was good. I still can't say that I love cauliflower, but I would make and eat this again.

I grew up on mac & cheese. Those thin blue boxes with the bright orange cheese powder were an occasional treat when I was younger. Yep, you read that right. Kraft mac & cheese as a treat. Now, the word cheese here is generous. I'm not sure that the Kraft box has any actual cheese in it.

Since I moved to Seattle, I've discovered that mac & cheese comes prepackaged, ready to bake, from an amazing local artisan cheese maker. Remove plastic, bake, eat. This is mac & cheese. This is a heart attack waiting to happen. This is greasy, cheesy goodness. This is perfection in a oven safe container.

More on Beecher's Mac & Cheese in a later post.

J and I have been experimenting with making our own mac & cheese. We've tried two different recipes, both with excellent results. This is one of the attempts. Both recipes came originally from What We're Eating.

Ingredients (* = organic, & = local)

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter *&
• 2 tablespoons rice flour *
• 1 3/4 cup whole milk *
• 8 ounces sharp cheddar
• 4 ounces havarti
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 pound chorizo
• 1/2 cup cilantro *
• 1 cup roasted red peppers
• 1 jalapeno *
• 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 cups macaroni
• Salt and pepper

Assembly

We (ok, J) started browning the chorizo. It's awfully hard to determine when chorizo is browned. It's so red to begin with and its color doesn't change much when it's cooked. But, we just cooked it until it seemed done and then gave it a few more minutes.

Once that's done, J grated the cheddar and the havarti, chopped the cilantro, diced the roasted red pepper, and the jalapeno.

Now comes the bechamel sauce. Oooooo, bechamel. In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. When it is melted, whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour. It's best to keep whisking for a good minute to make the roux. Slowly pour in the milk. I poured the milk in a slow stream with one hand while continuing to whisk with the other. If you just pour without whisking, you'll end up with lumps. Bring the sauce to a slow simmer, continuing to whisk gently. Simmer for about 10 minutes. The sauce should thicken. At this point, you can back off the whisking just a bit.

Turn off the heat and add the shredded cheeses. Stir until the cheese has completely melted. Now it's time for a taste. Add some salt and pepper as necessary as well as the ground cumin.

Back to the chorizo... mix in the cilantro, jalapeno, and roasted red pepper.

Mix together and add to the bechamel sauce.

Meanwhile... cook the macaroni! Cook for 2 minutes less than the package directions as it'll took a little more in the oven. Combine the pasta and the bechamel mixture. In a glass casserole dish, spread the mixture and top with the panko. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Here's the finished product.

We brought this to a party last weekend.  For this attempt, we used rice flour and gluten free pasta. We've made it before with regular flour and low carb pasta and it's just as good.

Vegetables and I don't always get along. In particular, though wilted greens always look good, I've never met a wilted green I liked. As we were on our way home one night, J suggested that we get some kale. I was a little unsure about this, but I figured that he'd eat it at least and I'd try it.

Well, after we cooked the kale, I was amazed. It was great. So great that we stood there in the kitchen while the rest of dinner was cooking eating it directly out of the bowl.

We will definitely be making this again. As usual, * = organic and & = local.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds kale (2 bunches) *
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil &
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic *&
• Red pepper flakes
• Red wine vinegar (a splash)
• Salt and pepper

Remove the stems from the kale and chop the leaves coarsely. Wash and drain. In a large pan, heat 3 tbsp of the oil and a layer of kale over high heat. (NOTE: Do not heat the oil and then add the kale... very bad idea). Stir to rotate the leaves. As the kale wilts, add more, until you've added all of it. Add some salt, reduce the heat to medium, and cover.

Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. The length of cooking time will depend on the age of the kale. Older kale might need more than 4-5 minutes. If the leaves start to dry out, add a splash of water. Once the leaves are tender, remove the lid and let any remaining water cook away.

Transfer the kale to a warm bowl. Add the last tablespoon of oil to the pan with the garlic and red pepper. Saute for a minute or two. Pour the garlic mixture over the kale and add a splash of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.