Sunday and Salsa Ver-Day

My daughter gave me this cool set of beautiful bronze colored nonstick pizza pans for Christmas, and I tried them out today.

I've never successfully kneaded dough by hand, so for several years I used a bread machine. It worked well, but it took so long and made vertically tall and horizontally short loaves. Funhouse sandwiches, anyone? Then I found a handheld Kitchenaid 5 speed mixer that came with regular beaters plus a stick blender attachment and dough hooks (!!!) on clearance for $25.00 a few months ago. It was life changing. I gave the bread machine to my daughter and never looked back.

 

So today I started mixing up my usual pizza dough recipe, la la la, doop de doo...but, ummm, why does this dough feel weird?

It feels weird because it is weird. Because you grabbed the wrong flour, genius girl. (My daughter is gluten intolerant, so I have brown rice flour on hand for baking when she's here.) So, I just kept going with it; not going to waste food. Not now, not evah. Warning: inappropriate/hilarious video.

 

The label I misread...my own abbreviations did me in. A quick glance with my not-so-good glasses had told me I had BRF = bread flour, when I actually had BRF=brown rice flour. Now it's been put in a jar, unmistakably labeled.

The dough actually did rise, after an hour near a sunny window. It had a little bit of whole wheat flour and a little added gluten, so I guess that helped. The dough felt like gritty playdough. I baked them up, and they came out quite hard, but still edible. They taste fine, actually, not that I would ever make them with this messed up recipe again, but edible is good.                 

 

Then it was time to make the salsa verde. I spent many summer days cleaning, scoring and roasting countless tomatillos to fill the freezer. Note to self: never again plant five tomatillo plants. I just love chili verde, though, so all of them will be put to good use. 

Tomatillos, red onions, cilantro, good olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, and fresh squeezed lemon and orange juices, since I ran out of limes. Soooo good, you don't even know. I really wish you could taste these pictures. 

 You may have noticed I like to save and reuse glass jars. I try to have as little plastic in my food and life as possible.

This. Tastes. Like. So. Good.

 

End result: mostly gluten free "toothsome" pizza crust, refried black beans, mozzarella cheese, salsa verde, and sour cream. I ate one and a half of these guys, and then immediately took a Sunday nap.

Peace.

Scatterday Night's Alright

When the going gets tough, the tough get procrastinating...er, I mean, cooking. Today's theme was stress control, and there are few things better for that than cooking, for this girl. Let's start with bacon drippings, butter, onions, jalapenos and garlic on simmer.




Now, let's throw in cumin, chili powder, and salt.
After that, let's pour in the cooking water from the black beans made earlier, and bring it to a boil and reduce it to a nice thick sauce. Then let's add it back in to the pot of beans.
















Later on, it's time to make banana bread before the bananas become too overripe to use. My great grandmother's recipe is the one I use, with my updates. I'll add it later. For now, I will let you know it involves dark chocolate chips, walnuts, mace, vanilla, whole wheat and white flour, eggs, butter, salt, baking soda, bananas, and ground flax.

Self: learn to manipulate the photo layout!

This is Wisconsin, after all. We like a little banana bread with our butter.

Found a place to use the decoupage box I made a few years ago...cookbook holder. I took the doors off the cabinets over the stove, in an effort to open up and brighten up the space. This is a work in progress. I also added several of the cookbooks to the St. Vincent's donation bag o' the day. I organized a few kitchen cabinets and pared down the contents to the essentials. How the heck do I always end up with ten thousand plastic container lids, and only three containers?

I also finally found a place to use the lazy susan I bought at IKEA last spring. It's too big to fit into any of the cupboards, but this works. Behind the coffee and tea and honey are all my vitamins, easily at hand but out of sight. Win. This is my grandma's breadbox, by the way.

Last but not least, I started some seeds soaking to have sprouts. On the right are mung beans, and on the left a combination of radish, broccoli and clover. So yummy! It's the first time I've grown them since moving into this place...I used to grow them all the time, "back home". Yes, I do miss my old town and my old apartment there at times. But that's a topic for another day. Sweet dreams, everyone, and thanks for hanging out with me on my Saturday tiny kitchen adventure. Peace.

Happy 2013!

 Happy New Year! I hope everyone reading this stayed safe last night and had a great time. My new year started out with a big mess this frigid and blindingly bright morning. I stayed in at my daughter's house on New Years' Eve, watching cable TV and eating pizza while she went out to a party with her work friends. She spent the night at their house, so I was on my own to begin the day. My daughter's coffee making apparatus is decidedly different from mine at home. I struggled and fiddled and finally ended up spraying ground coffee all over the kitchen. After a few frustrated texts, I got it all under control. This event was much funnier later, after the drama was over and I finally had my caffeine fix.

 

Rollin' home on the Badger bus later this afternoon from Milwaukee to Madison, WI gave me time to ponder lots of things. I reflected on the good and the bad of the year just past, and contemplated the hopes, dreams and uncertainties of the year ahead.

Black eyed peas, greens and rice for good fortune.

 

The holidays came and went so quickly, and tomorrow will be spent undoing the decorating and getting rid of the Christmas tree already. After that will be goal setting and organization. This is going to be my year to get it all together and get on top of it, and stay there. Plant my flag and declare victory. I may never be an efficiency expert, but I can get better. It's a promise to myself that I will do all I can each day to keep moving in that direction.

*Foot(ball) note: The Wisconsin Badgers made it to the Rose Bowl for the 3rd time in 3 years, but lost to Stanford today. 

 Recipe: Violet's New Year's Black Eyed Peas

(Normally, you'd have cornbread to represent gold, but I added turmeric to the rice instead.) The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork (I only had bacon fat available), because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.

Peas:
A cup or two of dry black eyed peas
Twice as much water
One jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, chopped
Half a leek, chopped
Large clove of garlic, smashed and minced
Chicken bouillon, 1 - 2 tsp. (I use this)
 T. or so of rendered bacon fat
T. or so apple cider vinegar
Cup or so of chopped spinach
Creole Seasoning to taste

Rice:
Cup or so of Basmati rice
Twice as much water, but a little less
teaspoon of turmeric
salt

Black eyed peas require no presoaking. Throw all the peas ingredients in together. I used what I had on hand. You can substitute kale for the spinach, add smoked meat, do whatever sounds good to you. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on med-low for 45 min or until tender. Watch them, they can go too mushy if you cook them too long.

For the rice, put all in the pan, bring to boil, turn to low, cover, take off heat after 20 min, let stand covered 5 min, then fluff with fork.

Super healthy, super yum, and super good luck in the new year! Peace.

Do try this at home.

India is home to the oldest civilized culture on earth, dating back some 3,000 years. In all that time, an amazing wealth of knowledge was amassed, from spirituality to health and everything in between. I've become increasingly interested in the time-tested healing power of Indian foods, which usually incorporate potent, colorful, fragrant and delicious herbs and spices. Turmeric, a relative of ginger, is included in most dishes, as are onions, garlic, cloves, cardamom, cayenne, ginger, tamarind, fenugreek and many others, dependent on regional cooking styles. It's become a fascinating journey for me, and I have only scratched the surface so far.

My good friend has recently shared his family's recipe for spicy fish curry with me, and although he is in the UK and I am in Wisconsin, we cooked it "together" through the magic of Skype video chat (love my new Mac laptop!). It was my first time cooking with tamarind, and shopping for the correct form of it was a new and fun experience for me. Luckily we have an amazing Asian food store in Madison which carries all types of foods and products from Mexico, the Philippines, Iraq, India, Morocco, Israel, China, just about every middle eastern or Asian country. Surprisingly, I even found a can of my favorite Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory there, which hails from my beloved New Orleans...may all her precious sea life now rest in peace... But I digress. Tamarind has a rich, savory and slightly sour taste; it's one of the main flavors in Worcestershire sauce, so for those of you who have never tasted tamarind, that might give you some frame of reference for how delicious this dish is. Here are the photos of the finished result, which was, I must say, amazing. (My dear friend is home in India for two weeks visiting his family, and I am missing him and our daily Skype chats just a wee bit. I can't wait til he comes back and brings new recipes from home to share with me via our Skype "cooking classes".) ॐ

Click pictures to see larger in more detail...and yes, those are Mardi Gras beads still sitting on my table from my birthday trip there in February. They make me smile every time I see them. 

Here is the recipe, paraphrased. The fish that is normally used for this dish in Hyderabad is not one I recognized or could locate a translation for, so I used my favorite fish, catfish. One large catfish should feed at least three hungry people, or one very lucky empty nester mom such as I for three days...plus the leftover sauce, which made a nice vegetarian rice dish on the fourth day. For a side dish, I made some simple saffron rice (basmati rice cooked with a couple of pinches of good saffron, a few dashes of cumin powder, and a handful of red lentils just for added texture). This is sooooo good! I hope you'll try it and tell me your impressions.

Spicy Fish Curry

Cut one good sized catfish into 1 - 2 inch thick slices (I don't like the deboned fillets; the bones seem to help keep the fish moist and impart more rich flavor). Wash the cut fish pieces and rub with salt and turmeric two or three times.

Put the tamarind pieces* into hot water and let soak, we will use the juice.

Cut one medium onion into small pieces. Chop green chilies (I used serrano, I think; they were just labeled green chilies at the Indian market) one or maybe two, if you want it spicy. I used one. You may want to remove some or all of the seeds if you don't want it too spicy. (I love spicy!).

Place the cut fish pieces into a medium size frying pan with the onions, green chilies, a tablespoon of turmeric powder, salt depending on how much fish you have, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red chilie powder if you want it even more spicy, a tablespoon of dhaniya powder (coriander powder), and 2 tablespoons of garam masala powder (available at Indian and sometimes other stores). Add three tablespoons of olive oil. Mix all of the above with your hands (I used disposable plastic kitchen gloves because of the hot peppers) so that the spices infuse the fish well. Pour in the tamarind water*.

The tamarind water should be enough so that all the fish pieces are slightly floating; the fish will steam in that liquid. Place the pan on the stove on high heat until it reaches a fast simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer about 15-20 minutes. Remove the lid and cook until fish is cooked through and the tamarind water is much reduced into a gravy-like sauce. Do not overcook fish. Serve with rice (traditional) or your favorite side dish.

*This is the correct form of tamarind to buy for this recipe:

It comes wrapped in a block like this; you just break off a few hunks and soak them for awhile in hot water. Maybe half an hour, until they are very well saturated and soft, and can be broken apart easily. For this recipe, we used nearly half a block, and probably 3-4 cups of hot water. Once it's well soaked, you stick your hands in there and squeeze it all up a bunch of times, separating the tamarind fruit flesh from the fibrous parts. Then you press it all through a sieve, and compost the stuff left behind. It doesn't take long. The end result is tamarind water.