Talks About Food

Speaking of finding certainty in my often unstructured life, there is a quote from the movie Julie & Julia that I thought describes the appeal of baking to many folks, including me. Julie is baking chocolate cream pie, and says to her husband:

“You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That’s such a comfort.”

With that, here’s a very simple and yet very versatile recipe for chocolate pudding. This is a basic recipe for a stove top custard, that I got from my baking course. It means that you can use these same ingredients and techniques, and use it to make other kinds of stove top custards. Swap out the mocha flavoring for orange liqueur, or crème de menthe? Take out the chocolate and you’ve got crème anglaise!

Mocha Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients:

• 4 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1 1/3 cup almond milk*
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 oz (1 tbsp) unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp of mocha flavoring*

* The original recipe calls for whole milk as well as heavy cream, but I tried it with just using almond milk, and it works just the same, it doesn’t taste any less rich.

* If you don’t happen to have mocha flavoring, you can make a batch of instant black coffee, and substitute this for the mocha. 

Gently heat the milk and sugar in a non-reactive pot (like enamel or  stainless steel). Add chocolate and melt into milk. 

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolk, cornstarch, and sugar. 

Temper the melted chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture. A little bit at a time, and whisk furiously to keep the yolk from curdling.

Pour back into the pot and cook until thick*. Finish with vanilla, mocha flavoring, and butter then strain into a bowl and refrigerate.

* If serving as a finished dessert the consistency should be thick but pourable, like regular Jello chocolate pudding. Cover the bowl with plastic, refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, just take out the individual bowls, and decorate with nuts on top, I used cashews. 

If using this for a pie filling (like chocolate cream pie), the consistency should be much thicker (like sour cream), something that you can cut into slices and hold up, not runny. Spoon pudding into a fully cooled pie crust and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Top with whipped cream and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Read the story behind the recipe: Getting My Words Together, and Keeping Them

So Farm to Table might be a ways away from being realized, but that doesn’t meant that you can’t start growing something on your own back yard, or in the case of my tiny herb garden, on a windowsill. 

One of the best herb I’ve got growing right now is my basil plant, it’s the only one that’s not dying for some reason. It actually grows more leaves than I can use. The thing with basil is the more you prune it, the more it grows back, it’s completely out of control! 

So what do you do with too much basil? Pesto, of course!

Panini with Home-Made Pesto

For the Pesto:

• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (or substitute whatever nut you have on hand)*
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan  cheese

* I didn’t have pine nuts, I used walnuts instead

For the Panini:

• 2 slices of sourdough bread
• a few slices of smoked gouda or smoked mozzarella
• a slice of tomato
• a handful of spinach
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 tbsp of butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil

To make the pesto

Combine the basil, garlic, and nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper. 

If you don’t own a food processor, you can use a mortar and pestel, and grind the pesto by hand, it takes a bit more work, but it works, I’ve done it before. You’d want to chop up the nuts really fine first though. It would be a pretty chunky pesto, but it’s still good.

If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

To make the panini

Add a little bit of olive oil to a pan, saute the garlic until fragrant, add the spinach, let it saute for 1 minute, then remove from heat, and set aside.

Then butter one side of each bread slice. Take one slice, with the buttered side down, spread some pesto sauce. Then layer a slice of cheese, then add the tomato slice and the sautéed spinach, and the remaining slice of cheese.

Take the remaining slice of bread, spread some pesto on the non-buttered side, and top off the sandwich. You want the buttered side of the bread to be on the outside.

Heat the same pan that you used for sautéing the spinach. Then place the assembled sandwich on the hot pan. You know it’s hot when the pan starts to smoke.

To make the panini flat and crispy, you’d want to put a weight on top of the sandwich. I used a smaller pan to push down the sandwich. You can use anything heavy like a cast iron pan or even a brick wrapped in aluminum foil.

When the bottom side is golden brown, lift your weight and flip the sandwich. Press down again until the other side is golden brown. 

That’s it, now you have a thin and crispy panini! You don’t even need to buy a panini maker or pesto from the store. So DIY of you!

Read the story behind the recipe: A GOOD Idea: An Urban Food Center

Since we’re talking about getting as many meals out of one grocery trip as we can, all these recipes are related, so that you can use a lot of the same ingredients over and over again. So here are the meals I made: Chilaquiles with Nopalitos, Chicken Tacos with Mango Salsa, Vegetarian Chorizo with Spanish Rice.

My first trip to the store I bought most of the ingredients for the Chilaquiles (minus the seasonings, since I already have those in my pantry). The whole thing cost about $8. From that, I was able to make different variations of Mexican food for the next couple of weeks. I only had to go back to the store and got one or two things, like the Soy Chorizo from Trader’s Joe, and mango and tomatoes for the salsa.

Chilaquiles Verde with Nopales

• 10 corn tortillas
• 1 cup vegetable oil for frying
• 1 pound of small green tomatoes (tomatillos), quartered*
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 green chili peppers (more if you like it spicy), chopped
• 3-4 medium size nopalitos, cleaned and cut into 1/2” wide strips*
• 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro
• 2 cups vegetable (or chicken) broth*
• 1 tsp of oregano
• 1 tsp of cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup Mexican cheese (Monterrey Jack or Cheddar works too)
• one fried egg to top it all off (optional, but definitely recommended!)

* I’m using green tomatoes since we’re making verde chilaquiles, but if you’ve got regular red tomatoes on hand, you can use that, and make chilaquiles rojo instead.

* You can buy nopales or cactus at most grocery stores now. You can buy them already cleaned and precut in a jar, but it’s much cheaper to buy them raw and prepare them yourself.

* I’m going the super-cheap route by making this dish vegetarian. But if you want to add meat, chicken or ground beef or pork, you can. In that case, you’re also welcome to use chicken or beef stock.

To make the chilaquiles

Clean and cut the nopales into 1/2” strips. Be careful if it’s your first time. Those are real cactuses, so they’re sharp! Here’s a tutorial on how to clean your nopales, and another.

Once ready, place the nopales in a small sauce pan cover them with water, and bring it to a boil. Let it cook for 2 minutes, and then drain. Then repeat once more, we do this to get the sliminess out. Drain and set aside.

Fill a small frying pan about half way up with vegetable oil (1 cup or more depending on how big your pan is, the smaller the better, so you won’t have to use up so much oil). Let it get hot, and then fry the tortillas, one at a time, until they turn golden brown. About 2 minutes or so each. Place on paper towel to drain the excess oil.

In a frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Sauté the onion and green tomatoes until soft. Add the garlic and the chopped chili. Saute for a minute more until the garlic smells amazing.

Take your sautéed onion mixture, place it in a food processor, let it cool slightly so it won’t explode on you. Then blend them together, it doesn’t need to be super fine, chunks are okay, it’s all about your preference. My food processor was broken when I was cooking this, so I used a mortar and pestel to grind the mixture by hand. I tried getting it as smooth as I can, but there were still pretty big chunks of stuff, but it came out fine in the end.

Return the pureed mixture to the pan, fry for a minute in a table spoon of oil. Add the seasonings: oregano, cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Then add the 2 cups of broth. Stir and bring to a boil. 

While waiting for the mixture to boil, stack the fried tortillas into a neat pile, and cut them into roughly 1/2” strips. Add to the boiling broth mixture. And then add in the nopales too.

Return to a boil once more, and then lower the heat and let it simmer until most of the liquid is gone, about 5-10 minutes. Check the seasoning one more time, adjust to taste.

To serve, crumble some Mexican cheese on top (or other cheeses you’re using). Add a dollop of sour cream on the side. You can fry an egg real fast (I did it on the same pan I used for frying the tortilla, I just dumped most of the oil out) to top off the whole thing. Enjoy your well-earned meal!

From the left over ingredients for the chilaquiles, I decide to make chicken tacos, since I already have corn tortillas, and I’ve got chicken breast sitting in my freezer. Since basically my definition of chicken taco is sautéed chicken breast seasoned with cumin, oregano, salt and pepper, I wanted to add some mango salsa, to make it more fun.

Mango Salsa

• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 ripe mango, diced
• a handful of cilantro, chopped
• half of medium red onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• half of a green chili pepper, chopped and seeded (more if you like it spicy) 
• 1/2 tsp of oregano
• 1 tsp of cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• juice of 1 lime

Put all ingredients together in a large tupperware and shake until everything is mixed together. Serve with your chicken taco or as a dip.

I made another meal using these ingredients: Vegetarian Chorizo with Spanish Rice. The vegetarian chorizo is basically Soy Chorizo from Trader’s Joe, sautéed with green beans. I just found out about soy chorizo from my friend, for the longest time I’ve avoided eating chorizo because someone told me what gross stuff goes in it. But the soy chorizo has the taste and texture of a regular chorizo, so I’m excited I can finally eat chorizo again!

Spanish Rice

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup uncooked white rice (medium grain)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cups water
• 1 10 oz can diced tomatoes (or 1 large tomato, diced)
• 1 tsp of oregano
• 1 tsp of cumin
• a pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until soft. Add in the rice. Saute until a little translucent.

Add in water and tomatoes. Add in the seasonings. Cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until rice is cooked and liquid is absorbed.

Read the story behind the recipe: My Favorite Thing About Taxes…

Ingredients:

Nasi Kuning (Indonesian Yellow Rice)

• 1 cup rice
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 packet of Yellow Rice Seasoning (we use Kokita brand)* 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 in piece of fresh lemongrass and 2 kaffir lime leaves (optional)*

* They have this at Asian supermarkets, but if you can’t get a hold of it, or you want to go the authentic route, you can use 1 tsp of turmeric powder, half an onion, 1 clove of garlic, all crushed together in a blender into a yellow paste and sauteed until fragrant. This will look like the instant Yellow Rice Seasoning, and you can use this paste when the recipe calls for the Yellow Rice Seasoning.

* If you’re using the seasoning, you don’t have to use these because it’s already in the mix. But if you’re going the authentic route and making everything from scratch, you have to use these, the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves are what give the rice that fragrant smell. Kaffir lime leaves is for me the hardest one to find (which is why I prefer to use the seasoning), but if you can get a hold of the the kaffir lime leaves, definitely go for it. If not, you might also get away with using bay leaves instead. The two are not the same thing though.

If you’re curious I found a good list of the different herbs that are most commonly used in Indonesian cooking (and Thai cooking as well). It’s got their names, pictures, and other names the herbs go by, sometimes they also offer suggestions for possible substitutes.

To make Nasi Kuning

Place the rice in a large saucepan. Fill the pot halfway with cold water. Wash and rinse the rice at least 3 times. Drain, set aside.

Heat the 2 cups of water in a large pot. Add the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, if using. You don’t have to wait until the water boils. You just want the water heated, so by the time you’re ready to add the rice, it’s already close to the boiling point.

Next, add the coconut milk.

Then add the Yellow Rice Seasoning.

Add the washed rice. Bring the rice mixture to a boil and stir occasionally, to make sure no rice gets stuck to the bottom of the pot and get burned.

Keep stirring until most of the liquid is almost gone, about 10-15 minutes.

At this point the rice is close to being done, but it’s still a little bit under cooked, it should be a bit crunchy. So we’ll use the rice cooker to finish cooking the rice. It’s a bit tricky, but stick with me. So you want to fill the bottom of the rice cooker with about 1 1/2 inch of water. 

And then cover the water with a steamer basket. Sometimes when you buy a rice cooker it comes with one, but if it doesn’t the steamer basket is just a flat surface with holes in it, so find something around the house that can do the job, maybe a strainer, those bamboo baskets that they have on dim-sum places also can work. 

Once you have your steamer set up, add the rice.

Turn on the rice cooker, and let it cook until it’s done, should take about 10 minutes. Rice should be fluffy and soft, and no longer crunchy.

Open the pot and discard the lemongrass stalks and kaffir lime leaves. Gently fold the rice over with a spoon, evenly distributing aromatic flavors that may be concentrated in pockets in the rice. You can serve it with curry, stew, salad, or stir-fry. Or you can serve it the way we do back home during special occasion, and make side dishes to go along with it. On of the most popular side dish being the Perkedel, Indonesian potato and beef fritters.

Perkedel (Indonesian Potato and Beef Fritters)

• 2 pounds baking potatoes, boiled and mashed*
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbs peanut oil, plus more for deep frying
• 4 shallots, finely chopped*
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 pound lean ground beef

* To lazy to mash potatoes? Us too, we used Betty Crocker Homestyle Reds.

* Instead of frying your own shallots, you can also get a container of Bawang Goreng (friend onion) from the Asian market.

To make the Perkedel 

Preheat a wok until hot. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil, the shallots and garlic; saute until soft. Mix together the fried shallots, beef, salt, pepper, the coriander, nutmeg, parsley and 1 of the eggs.

Prepare your mashed potatoes. Add mashed potatoes to the meat mixture. Mix well.

Form into balls and flatten them into cakes about 1 1/2inches round by 3/4 inch thick. On a bowl beat the remaining egg. Then dip the cakes into the egg.

Pour 2 inches of oil into a preheated wok. Heat to 365 degrees. Add 4 or 5 cakes, or as many as will fit into the pan without crowding or reducing the temperature of the oil.

Deep fry, turning occasionally until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove to paper towels to drain. 

Serve with the Nasi Kuning. You can also add other side dishes like sauteed broccoli, scrambled eggs, and some Sambal Goreng Tempeh!

Read the story behind the recipe: The Secret Ingredient

Makes about 2 loaves of bread.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice*
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups grated zucchini*
• 1 cup macademia nuts*
• 3 cups flour
• 2 loaf pans 8 x 3 7/8 x 2 15/32 inch* 

* If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice on hand, just add another tsp of cinnamon instead.

* Each cup is about 4 ounces of nuts.

* Each 2 cups of zucchini grated is about 1 1/2 normal size zucchinis.

* You can use bigger loaf pans just increase the baking time as needed.

Grate the zucchini. No need to peel them, but just cut off any icky spots and the end. Save the stem end so when you grate by hand you have something to hold onto so I don’t scrape your knuckles.

Beat eggs; add oil, sugar, vanilla & baking soda.

Then add remaining dry ingredients (cinnamon, salt, and flour), hold off on adding the nuts until later. Mix thoroughly. 

Do not add the zucchini first - add the dry ingredients first and then the zucchini. The zucchini makes it too hard to get the spices and flour distributed properly, we don’t want big swirls of dry flour when we cut the loaf.

It’s going to get pretty thick and dry, but don’t be alarmed, once you add the zucchini in, that’s going to add a lot of liquid into the mixture.

Add zucchini, blend everything together. You might want to use your hands, we did! It’s much easier than using a rubber spatula, and plus, you get to lick your fingers when you’re done, all 10 of ‘em!

Add the nuts last, and don’t skimp!

Grease and flour bread pans, filling 2 pans about halfway.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Wait until cool before unmolding. At this point, if you want to give this out as gifts, you can just leave them in the bread pan. You can also freeze it for up to a year! Since the bread is also good served cold, you can thaw it out for a several minutes before serving. Or you can reheat if you prefer warm.

Read the story behind the recipe: Friendmas, Double the Christmas!

Soul cakes get stale within a day or two, so eat ‘em while they’re hot. Makes 12 to 15 2-inch soul cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground fresh if possible
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground fresh if possible
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Generous pinch of saffron
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup currants (raisins, dried apricots, or other dried fruits can also be used)

For the Glaze:

• 1 egg yolk, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the flour, the nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Mix well with a fork.

Crumble the saffron threads into a small saucepan and heat over low heat just until they become aromatic, taking care not to burn them. Add the milk and heat just until hot to the touch. The milk will have turned a bright yellow. Remove from heat.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon (or use an electric mixer with the paddle attachment). Add the egg yolks and blend in thoroughly with the back of the spoon. Add the spiced flour and combine as thoroughly as possible; the mixture will be dry and crumbly.

One tablespoon at a time, begin adding in the warm saffron milk, blending vigorously with the spoon. When you have a soft dough, stop adding milk; you probably won’t need the entire half-cup.

Turn the dough out onto a floured counter and knead gently, with floured hands, until the dough is uniform. Roll out gently to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Using a floured 2-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out as many rounds as you can and set on an ungreased baking sheet. You can gather and re-roll the scraps, gently. If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, you can shape the dough into flat disks by hand.

Decorate the soul cakes with currants or other dried fruits and then brush liberally with the beaten egg yolk. Bake for 15 minutes, until just golden and shiny. Serve warm, with some chider (chi tea steeped in apple cider).

Read the story: Soul Cakes & Garrison Keillor, A New Halloween Tradition

(Source: NPR)