Call me the Rooster

If you are a David Sedaris loyalist you will recall one of his short stories about his brother who insists on being called the rooster and takes on a street/rap persona in the process. Reading it was one of the few moments I've had in life where I simply could not stop laughing to myself aloud as I read.

In LA there is a company, Huy Fong Foods, Inc. that makes a Hot Chili Sauce that is out of this world. I tell Lisa that after years of cooking with it I've make the transition from hot to sweet - what was once wince inducing hot is now tangy and sweet. This is like jumping the shark in a good way (although, I insist there were plenty of good Happy Days episodes after Fonzy took on the California Kid). The bottle for this condiment comes with a unique green tipped top with a rooster prominently featured on the front. So, call me the rooster as I am close to in love with this spicy mixture. There are about 5 calories per serving, no fat, and 1 gram of sugar - so you can cook with it without guilt.

Tonight Lisa made a seeded rice, a basmatti rice with cumin, black pepper, fennel, nigella, and fenugreek seeds. I mixed in some egg whites, a bit of percorino and quite a bit of the rooster. This was paired with a McGregor 2007 Red Russian wine with a beautiful purple hue. We'll give some tasting notes on this wine in another post. McGregor is perhaps the only grower and producer in the U.S. of these wines. The saperavi (Georgian: საფერავი; literally "paint, dye" - due to its intensive dark-red colour) is an acidic, teinturier-type grape variety native to Georgia and is a wonderful base for a higher-end red wine that will age nicely. This wine had pleasant blackberry aromas joined by light floral notes. It has a juicy and soft mouth feel and is a great compliment for meats and if you are willing to experience it hot foods like the rice we made tonight.

Holiday Pizzelle

Pizzelle are a traditional Italian waffle-like cookie made to celebrate annual festivals.  The word meads small flat round.  The tricks to a good pizzelle include a sturdy iron and a reliable recipe.   The origin of these cookies dates back to the 8th century in the south-central area of Abruzzi (now Abruzzo).

This is another recipe that can cross over ethnic palates and go fusion if you'd like.  I made about 50 of these yesterday for the kids using the following recipe.  They came out perfect which means thin enough to have a crispy snap when you bite into them, not too sweet, with hints at the key spices, and of course not too oily (which can be a problem if you use a traditional recipe with butter - which as you'll see below we substitute for...)

Batter Recipe:
5 eggs
3 teaspoon of almond extract (traditional recipes call for anise or anise seed)
2 table spoons of baking powder
1 cup of canola oil (standard is to use butter - which I think makes the dough cloying and greasey)
1 handful of coco or chocolate chips
4 pinches of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of sugar (2 brown and one white or 2 brown and some honey) - don't go for all white processed sugar it will make the batter way too gritty no matter how you mix it
1 twist of some citrus - orange or lemon
3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of garam masala, red hot pepper (if you are ok with sweet and hot mixed together)

Cooking:
Heat your iron or pizzelle maker for about 5 minutes, batter should make a sizzling sound when touched to the iron.
Press about a teaspoon of batter in each mold for 1 1/2 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool on a rank individually first.  Hold stacking them until they are not hot.

Cheers.

Thanksgiving Fish Post

We debated the making of a butter turkey until earlier this morning and came to the conclusion we simply don't care too much for the taste of turkey and didn't need to explore ways to disguise the flavour. Turkey made its presence at our table this year thanks to the arts and crafts handiwork of our lovely children. Without getting to ferklempft (going with the phonetics approach to spelling on a Mike Myers favourite) let me say we have a lot to be thankful for this year.

We went with a white fish in a yoghurt garam masala sauce. This went well with the overall Indian thanksgiving theme and was light enough that seconds were not a problem and we had plenty of energy for an afternoon basketball game.

Ingredients:

white fish - 3-4 fillets
2 teaspoons of garlic powder or 2 garlic cloves (pressed)
2 pinches of grated ginger
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 juiced lemon
1 table spoons of natural yoghurt
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cummin
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp of coconut oil

Heat a skillet to medium high and add mixed spices, oil, and coconut oil (pre-mix them). Add the fish and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from burner and allow to stand for a few minutes for the fish to absorb the spiced mix. (You can also marinate the fish for a bit before cooking).

Thanksgiving Menu

 We had a yummy vegetarian Thanksgiving today.  Of course, I spent 5 hours cooking and it was devoured in 30 minutes.  But that's OK.  We have leftovers!  Take a look at that pie.  Our son looks forward to this pie every year.  He says it's the best pie in the world.  Try it and you may agree.  It is a sweet potato pie made with light coconut milk and two eggs (you can make it completely vegan by substituting 3-4 ounces of firm tofu for the eggs, which was how I made it last year). 

 The main course was Maple Glazed Tofu, with wild rice and chestnut stuffing.  Sides included instant corn Paniyaram, sauteed swiss chard, spiced baked apples, and cranberry sauce.

The pie was heavenly and I also made some Pecan Bourbon Truffles.  Actually I didn't spend 5 hours cooking.  It only felt like it.  The meal actually comes together really quickly.  The pie and the cranberry sauce are the only thing that needs to be made a bit ahead so that they can cool, but everything else is quick.

Sweet Potato Pie

Crust
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 oz Earth Balance Margarine (or butter if you like)
3-4 T ice cold water

Filling
1 large garnet yam or orange sweet potato
10 oz light or reduced fat coconut milk (I used Trader Joe's)
2 eggs or 3-4 oz firm tofu
1/2 cup brown sugar or to taste
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t ground ginger
Hint: use a bit more spice if you use the tofu

To make the crust, place the flour and salt in a food processor.  Cut up 1/2 of the margarine into small pieces and add to the flour.  Pulse until the fat is incorporated and the mix looks like corn meal.  Add the rest of the margarine and pulse until the lumps are the size of lentils. Add the water one tablespoon at a time, pulsing until the mixture forms a loose ball.  Roll out the dough between sheets of wax paper and lay it into a pie plate.  Blind bake the crust for 15 minutes at 350F.

To make the filling, peel the potato and cut it into large chunks.  Boil the chunks for about 10 minutes or until they are tender.  Drain and cool.  Put the cooled potato into a blender or processor and add the coconut milk, eggs or tofu and sugar.  Blend until creamy and light.  Add the spices and blend briefly until they are mixed in.  Pour into the blind baked shell (you can use the extra dough to make leaf or other shapes to decorate the top) Bake at 350F for one hour.

Maple Glazed Tofu

As usual with this kind of recipe, I don't really measure, so portions and proportions are up to you.

Firm or Extra Firm Tofu (or super firm if you like it)
1-2 T canola or vegetable oil
1-2-T Maple Syrup
1-2 T tamari or soy sauce
1-2 T Apple Cider Vinegar
1t grated fresh ginger

Slice the tofu into cutlet sized slices.  Or cut into circles or other fun shapes.  Heat a non stick skillet and add about 1T oil.  (Depending on how much you are making, you will have to do this in batches, unless you have two or more skillets).  Add the tofu and brown the first side.  Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients.  When the first side of the tofu is browned, flip it over and brown the other side.  When the second side is browned, add 1-2 Tablespoons of the syrup to the pan and turn the tofu a couple times until the syrup mixture thickens and coats the tofu.

Wild Rice Chestnut Stuffing
once again the proportions are to your taste and approximate

1 cup cooked wild rice
1 package of Trader Joe's steamed chestnuts (or about 10 oz of cooked chestnuts)
2 slices of Ezikiel Bread (or your choice of whole grain or sourdough bread) diced
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped fine
1-2 shallots, chopped fine
1 cup of your choice of broth (I used 1/2 cube of Not-Chick'n buillion cubes purchased at Whole Foods dissolved in one cup of water)
1/2 t rubbed sage or 1T fresh sage
1T vegetable oil

Heat a skillet and add the oil.  Saute the celery and shallot until they are soft but not browned.  Mix all of the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and add the sauteed vegetables.  Pour into a casserole dish and cover with foil.  Bake for 45 minutes at 350F.

Instant Corn Paniyaram

1/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup barley flour
1/4 cup corn meal
1 red chili chopped fine
1t grated ginger
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 cup corn kernels (fresh or defrosted)
1/2-1 cup of kefir, buttermilk, soymilk, or thinned yoghurt.

Mix all the dry ingredients.  Add the liquid slowly until the batter is like a muffin batter (kind of thick, but not too stiff).  Cook in a paniyaram pan (or you could cook them like muffins).

Cranberry Sauce
1 package of fresh cranberries
1/2 cup brown sugar or to taste
1/3 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cinnamon

Add all of the ingredients to a heavy bottomed saucepan.  Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries have burst and the mixture is thick.  About 10-20 minutes.

Keuka Lake & Indian Fish Curry

https://www.mcgregorwinery.com

We have been eating a lot of fish lately (see our prior posts re our affinity for tilapia). We've also been on a Finger Lake wine run for the last few weeks. I recently took a trip to Lake Keuka, the crooked lake, in upstate NY and did some wine tasting with my father. We started in Hammondsport with Bully Hill of Taylor Wine Family fame and ventured on to the East Side as well (the picture here is from the East Side overlooking the fork in the lake). The white wines from this region pair particularly well with spicy foods and curries. The following is a recipe for a fish curry you might enjoy.

Ingredients: for fish curry indian :
1 1/2 lb white fish
4 cloves garlic
2 hot peppers chopped (selection depends on local availability)
1 tbsp ginger
4 tbsp tomato puree - coconut milk works better to me
2/3rd cup water
Salt to Taste
1/2 cup ghee or table butter - this can be cut down
Spices :
1tsp white cumin seeds, 1tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp garam masala powder

The cooking bit:
Cut the fish into medium-sized pieces.
Heat the ghee in a frying pan, mixing in the spices and garlic (you can also pre-do the garlic) and fry the fish pieces gently for 5 minutes. Drain the fish on absorbent kitchen paper and set aside.
Add the liquids and bring to a boil and then simmer.
Add fried fish pieces.
Reduce the liquid by about half.

If you are looking for a Riesling (I promise my last plug for this varietal) you may want to try the 2008 one from McGregor Winery in Keuka Lake, which won the 2010 NY Food and Wine Critic's award as the best dry Riesling. This Riesling has pleasant aromas of flower blossoms and orchard fruits. It is nifty little wine with floral hints on the palate including hints of stone fruit (white peaches, appricots) and some lime peel and orange honey blossom. It is a particulary good match with hot foods.

Oh, Fudge, I'm in a Pickle

 Two things that I can't stop eating are sweet things and sour things.  Oh, ha ha, I just realized that pretty much includes everything.  Well, here are a couple of items that I whipped up recently.  I neglected to pick some of my green chilies and they turned red.  What to do?  I decided that pickling them would make good use of them.  I went to Manjula's Kitchen and found a pickled jalapeno recipe.  I thought the spicing looked nice so I started making it.  While I was preparing the pickling spices, I was also making some hari chutney and had squeezed a lemon.  The lemon shell was lying on the cutting board when I grabbed my red hot peppers and threw them down on the same board to chop.  The bright red peppers next to the sunny yellow lemon was too much to resist.  I chopped up the lemon rind along with the peppers and pickled them together.  Super hot and super tangy.  This was a pairing that was meant to be.  I ate them with an experimental instant utthapam.  That turned out OK, a bit dry.  I'll experiment further and post a good recipe once I figure one out.
It's Clementine Season here again and I felt the need to make something with them.  I decided to make some quick fudge flavored with the clementine zest and walnuts.  Yum.  Just the kind of thing to round out a meal featuring the pepper lemon pickles.  The zest gives a subtle hint of flavor and marries well with the mellow walnuts.  The clementine sections themselves never make it into any recipe because I just don't think I can improve upon them just as they are.  Although sometimes I do include a couple of them in a smoothie.

I had actually started out wanting to make Persimmon Fudge.  I had bought some persimmons at the farmers' market and I thought a couple of them were ripe.  I forget, they take approximately 25 YEARS to ripen.  I cut one open and it seemed soft and fleshy.  I scooped out the fruit and tasted it.  GAG.  Nothing worse than an unripe persimmon.  So, no persimmon fudge this week.

Lemon Pepper Pickle

adapted from Manjula's Kitchen

2 tablespoons coriander
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seed
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon mango powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons oil
6 red serrano chilies (or your favorite)
one lemon

grind the seeds and mix all the dry spices together.  Heat the oil and temper the spices lightly. mix the oil and spices into the vinegar.  Chop the chilies and whole lemon.  Mix the spice mix into the lemon and pepper and put in a glass jar or container.  Refrigerate at least one day.  keeps about two weeks in the refrigerator, unless you eat it all first.

instant chickpea idli and roti hot pockets

 Today I felt motivated to cook.  Not that I haven't cooked in the past few days, but I was neither motivated to do it nor to blog about it.  This morning the kids were off from school, so I had a leisurely morning.  I wanted idli, but I wanted them now and I wanted to use chickpea flour.  I took some inspiration from Usha at Veg Inspirations and some recipe bits from Lord Krishna's Cuisine and whipped up an Instant Oat Garbanzo Idli.  I also spiked them with some nutritious powdered, dehydrated dandelion greens and some dried, powdered arame seaweed.  I make dehydrated greens and I use them in cookies, cupcakes, muffins, pancakes, etc. to get some veggie nutrients into the kids' diets.  I powder the dried land and sea greens in a spice blender and keep them on hand.  I figured that they would go just as well in the idli.  These idli were low fat and high protein from the addition of nonfat kefir and the chickpea flour.  I garnished them with some toasted coconut, sesame seeds and mustard seeds.  A perfect breakfast with a beet/carrot/mango smoothie. 

A few days ago I saw some vegan pepperoni in the supermarket (Yves brand).  I thought I would use it on the matzah pizza.  I prefer to stick to unprocessed fresh foods, but I just couldn't resist this as a treat.  They are high in protein and have lots of vitamins and minerals added, so, as processed foods go, this seems OK.  Instead of pizza, I wanted to experiment with something that could go on the road.  I rolled out two very thin rounds of dough, layered in a half slice of lite provolone and a few slices of the pepperoni on one and put the other on top and pressed the edges.  Cooked like a roti.  Not bad, although more cheese would have been more tasty.  Definitely something to put in a lunchbox. 
The recipe below for the idli is not quite perfect, and I always estimate the amounts.  So here it is:

Instant Oat Garbanzo Idli

1/2 c oat flout
1/2 c garbanzo flour
1t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 chili pepper chopped fine
1t ginger grated fine
a generous grinding of black pepper to taste
1/4 t salt or to taste
1 - 2 t of dried ground dandelion greens
1/2 t ground arame or other sea vegetable
1/4 t turmeric
pinch of hing (asafetida)
kefir, buttermilk, or thinned yoghurt (about 1 cup)

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add kefir, buttermilk, or yoghurt a bit at a time, mixing until the consistency of the batter is good for idli (like a thick muffin batter).  Make the idli in the usual way; takes about 20 minutes.

Coconut Garnish

heat a bit of butter in a pot and toast some mustard seeds, coconut, and sesame seeds.  Use to garnish cooked idli, or sprinkle on top of the uncooked idli and steam into the idli.