Random Food Fridays - Basic Stir Fry

Here is another one of those basic techniques that can be adjusted in any number of ways. Stir fries and soups are both great ways to use up bits and pieces of veg at the end of the week.

 Tonight's stir fry included snow peas, daikon, asparagus, carrots, onion, garlic and ginger. 

I gave my wok to my daughter sometime last year. When I stir fry, I do it in a very hot cast iron skillet. The only disadvantage to a flat-bottomed pan vs. a wok is that the wok is designed for the liquid that is released by vegetables to collect at the bottom in the area of highest heat. I try to keep my stir fries a bit dry so that they don't over steam. The only items I would consider non-negotiable in this recipe are the garlic and ginger. That's the where the flavor is!

 Here are the veggies all prepared. All are small enough to cook at the same time. The other ingredients are peanut oil, sesame oil, soy sauce and some mandarin orange marinade. My mom picked up the marinade from a farmer at the Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn. You could substitute any commercial teriyaki sauce. Sesame seeds get sprinkled over the finished dish.

My dinner! Yum!

I needed a little quick protein, so I added some frozen shrimps. I thawed them in water while preparing the veg. If you use them, add them at the very end, so they just get warmed through and do not over cook. When I make this with chicken, I like to marinate the chicken in the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, mandarin marinade and sesame oil. Again, this is just a foundation for your to adjust to your tastes. Have fun and be brave! 

Basic Stir Fry

1 tbsp. peanut oil

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. mandarin marinade or teriyaki sauce

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 tsp. minced fresh ginger

1 cup snow peas

Some shreds of daikon

Some shaved carrot

5 or 6 asparagus, diagonally sliced

1 large green onion, or some other type of onion, sliced thin

1 cup shrimps 

Sesame seeds

Heat a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the peanut oil and sesame oil. Add the garlic and ginger and stir to coat with oil. Add all the veg and toss to coat with oil and distribute the garlic and ginger. Add the soy sauce and mandarin or teriyaki sauce. Continue to toss the veg in the hot pan until tender-crisp. Add the shrimp and toss until heated through. Remove to serving plate, leaving any excess liquid behind. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

Makes one large or two medium sized servings.

Note: to make with chicken, cut up boneless, skinless chicken thighs and marinate in the soy sauce, mandarin or teriyaki sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. Heat the pan and add the peanut oil. Add the chicken pieces and cook until nearly done before adding the veg.

Tonight's Dinner - Brats, Greens and Smoked Paprika Roasted Potatoes

Sunday is cooking day. I've had to admit that while cooking real food can be easy and sooooo tasty, to enjoy real, home-cooked, food does take some time. I enjoy puttering in the kitchen so much, that it doesn't seem like a chore to me. It's comforting and creative and I feel in my element. (Sometimes the resulting dishes do feel like a chore, but that's where Mr. Dwayne comes in!)

Today, the contents of my fridge turned into a delicious meal and some awesome soup for weekday lunches. Our dinner included Sheboygan Brats from Morant's - the premier artisan sausage makers in Sacramento. I think it would be seriously challenging to remove the deliciousness from these things! As long as they are cooked to a safe temp, you're good to go. I just pan fried mine with some onions and olive oil. I used up beet greens from last weekend's farmers' market run, and the last little bit of some balsamic vinaigrette for sweet and sour greens. The recipe I want to share from tonight's dinner is for simple roasted potatoes.

Organic potatoes have a habit of sprouting and growing if not dealt with in a timely manner. This an excellent quality that I am counting for potato growing in my garden. However, those little eyes have toxins and they are not to be eaten. My pantry provided a pound of little yellow potatoes from my farm box and three red potatoes from the store. Both were getting their growth on. I trimmed and scrubbed them, dried and cut them and tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper and smoked paprika. I can't believe it has taken so long for smoked paprika to come into my life! (Thanks Garrett!) It adds so much smokey goodness to these simple potatoes. Smoked paprika took these potatoes from a salvage job to a sublime dish, perfect for a stormy Sunday. Do try it!

Smoked Paprika Roasted Potatoes
2 lbs. potatoes, trimmed, washed, dried and cut into large chunks
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
lots of freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Toss all of the ingredients together to coat and place in a 9 X 13 inch baking pan. Roast, uncovered for about 40 minutes. Stir once or twice during the roasting time.

Served two with some leftovers at my house. We probably ate too many!

Random Food Fridays - Creamy Chicken and Asparagus Pasta

Ah, pasta. Sometimes, nothing else will do. It is the food most likely to put me straight into a food coma. Usually, it's worth it. If it's not delicious enough to risk a food coma, I just stop eating.

Creamy Chicken and Asparagus Pasta
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup white wine vinaigrette
8 oz. Pappardelle
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
12 large asparagus spears, washed, trimmed and sliced diagonally
1 shallot, sliced
1 tsp. organic chicken base
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 tbsp. sour cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Trim and cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Combine with the crushed garlic and white wine vinaigrette. Allow the chicken to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or over night.

Start a large pot of salted water for the pasta. (The sauce comes together quickly, so you'll want to get the pasta going first.) Cook according to package instructions and drain. (If you time it right, the sauce and the pasta will be done around the same time.)

For the sauce, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and tip to coat the pan. Add the marinated chicken and the shallot. After the chicken has cooked about 5 minutes, add the asparagus and the chicken base. (I find organic chicken base at Costco.) Continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through and the asparagus is tender-crisp. Reduce the heat to low and add the ricotta cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese and parsley. Stir to combine and add the pasta. Toss to coat the pasta in the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of parsley.

6 servings
565 calories per serving

Mandarin and Cranberry Marmalade with Warming Spices

Here is the first of several new marmalades I've made this year - Satsuma Mandarin oranges, cranberries and a combination of warming spices. Right now, I'm kicking myself for not freezing more fresh cranberries when they were readily available. Next year, I will stock pile!

For what it's worth, Miss Paula declares this to be her favorite so far. In fact, when I gave it to her to taste, after three big spoons full, she asked me to take it away for her own safety! This is very good for the usual applications - toast and yogurt. I think it will also be a welcome dessert filling or glaze.

Mandarin and Cranberry Marmalade with Warming Spices
1 12 oz. bag of fresh cranberries
about 24 small Mandarins or other small tangerines
Juice of 1 lemon
6 cups sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
5 slices fresh ginger
2 whole cloves

Prepare jars, lids and boiling water bath. Place some saucers and spoons in the freezer.

Rinse and then roughly chop the cranberries. I usually run them through the slicing blade of my food processor. Set aside in an eight cup measuring cup.

Wash and peel the oranges. Stack sections of the peel and slice very thin. Save 1/2 cup of the sliced peel. Place the sliced peel and 4 cups cold water into a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, pull the segments into quarters and slice out the tough membranes where the segments meet in the middle of the fruit. Slice across the quarters at 1/4 inch intervals. Add the orange pieces to the cranberries, as they are sliced. After the peels have simmered for 30 minutes, drain, reserving liquid. Add the peels to the measuring cup. Add the simmering liquid to the measuring cup until the total of all the fruit and liquid reaches 8 cups.

Add the 8 cups fruit mixture and 6 cups sugar to a large pot. Break the cinnamon sticks into a few pieces and place them, with the ginger and cloves, into a wire mesh tea ball. Add this to the fruit and sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and simmer until thickened. Cranberries have a lot of pectin and this jam will thicken sooner than other marmalades. I pulled mine off the heat at about 216 degrees. When it begins to thicken, test by scooping a small amount into one of the spoons from your freezer. Allow it to cool for a few minutes. You may want to reduce the heat while awaiting the results. When it is cool, but not cold, push it with your finger. If it wrinkles, it is ready.

When desired thickness is reached, remove from heat and skim any remaining foam. Remove the tea ball. Allow to cool for one minute and stir. This helps to even distribute the solid bits throughout the marmalade. Carefully ladle into hot, prepared jars. Wipe the rims and top with lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Carefully remove and allow to cool overnight before labeling.

Makes about 7 half pint jars.

Random Food Fridays - Ribbon Salad with Pea Shoots and Pepitas

Nom, Nom, Nom

Some cliches just work. They are cliches for a reason, right.

This salad was an experimental model that exceeded my expectations. Like any salad, you could substitute lots of different things, but I particularly like the pea shoots and pepitas with this. I also like the light and zingy flavor of a white wine vinaigrette with this mix. Generally, balsamic is my go-to for vinaigrette, but I wanted the color and variety of these vegetables to come through. I used about half of the vinaigrette recipe on this salad and the rest to marinate some beans for another salad.

Ribbon Salad with Pea Shoots and Pepitas
Salad:
1 small daikon, or part of a big one (The one I used was about the size of a large carrot.)
2 medium carrots
1 small zucchini
1 heaping cup pea sprouts
hand full of pepitas

Scrub the diakon, carrots and zucchini. Use a vegetable peeler to shave ribbons of each of these vegetables. Stop peeling the zucchini when you reach the seeds. Toss the ribbons with the pea sprouts. Toss all with the white wine vinaigrette and sprinkle with pepitas.

Served two at my house, but we pretty much chowed down!

Dressing:
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. country style Dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch garlic & herb seasoning
pinch sugar

Place all ingredients in a jar with a tight lid and shake like crazy.

Marmalading - Sharing What I've Learned

I opened this little blog with Lemon, Pineapple and Rosemary Marmalade back in April of 2010. It was not my first marmalade, but one of my first really successful outcomes and one of my first attempts at a creative flavor combination. I'm now fully into the citrus season of 2012 and I'm cycling through marmalades for the third time. There are so many things I've learned, often through some degree of failure. When I first started canning, marmalade seemed like something so advanced and difficult! In fact, my first marmalade turned out so bitter and seemed like so much work! It was sheer stubbornness that kept me going. I would like to share what I've learned so that if you want to try making marmalade, you can have your first attempt come out delicious!

One of the first things you have to decide is what you like about marmalade and what types of flavors you like best. My methods achieve marmalades that have chewy threads of zest suspended in a thick syrup. The flavor is similar to candied peel - sweet, tart and not very bitter. If you like a more bitter marmalade, you can simply add more of the white parts of the fruit - pith and peel. Just keep in mind that my marmalades have been developed to produce a product that I like. I do have my fans, so I think you will like them too. I hope to give you a foundation to develop your own marmalades that include your own preferences.

I have to give a great deal of credit to Food in Jar's Three Citrus Marmalade. Marisa's recipe and method gave me my first success and was the launching pad for the rest of my marmalading madness.
Skipping the canning, here is her basic methodology:

1. Zest the peels. Simmer the zest for 30 minutes.
2. Supreme the fruit
3. Add the simmering liquid and zest to the supremes.
4. Add sugar.
5. Boil to correct set. (More on that later.)

Once you have your canning set up established, you can use this model for any citrus fruit. Here are some of the things I've learned, correlated to the steps listed above:

1. The zest is the very outer, colorful layer of the peel. The less pith (white part) you get, the less bitterness you will have. However, when you give up the pith (and seeds) you also give up some of the pectin. I have found that for fruits that are too soft to use a zesting tool, such as Satsuma mandarins, I prefer to peel the mandarins and thinly slice the peel by hand. Because there is more pith, the temperature to reach a good set will be lower than for those marmalades where you avoid the pith altogether. Because mandarin peels are so thin, they do not impart much bitterness. Lime zest is SO VERY BITTER that you may want to avoid it altogether. If you choose to use it, I suggest making lime zest a small component of your recipe and not the feature. By simmering the zest, the peels are softened and their flavors are mellowed and imparted to the poaching liquid.

2. By removing the supremes from the membranes, you will avoid still more bitterness. Again, you will lose some of the pectin. I usually supreme firm fruits like oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruits. I slice softer fruits like Meyer lemons and mandarins. If you are slicing the softer fruits, it is good to cut out the tough center where all the sections meet. These can remain really hard, even after long simmering. I strongly recommend that you get your knives sharpened before marmalading.

3. When adding the simmering liquid and zest to the fruit, I do not exceed 8 cups total. Eight cups of fruit, liquid and zest to 6 cups sugar seems to work best for flavor and set. Whenever I get creative with ingredients, I try to end up between 7 and 8 cups fruit/liquid. Any time you experiment, you must also watch the acidity. I have some handy PH test strips for this. If you use PH test strips, test after the fruit has cooked down for some time so that the fruit can break down and acidulate the water. You can always stir in some additional lemon juice at the end. Safe canning PH, for the boiling water bath method, is at least 4.0. Most fruits meet this requirement. More caution is required with non-fruit ingredients.

4. Sugar is always negotiable. I haven't done any low sugar or sugar-free canning, but it can be done. If you prefer to jam without using commercial pectin, you will be reliant on the pectin in the fruit, the sugar, the acidity of the fruit and time to provide you with a set. I also prefer pure cane sugar. I've tried using less refined sugar products, but I can smell and taste the molasses. While I'm sure my canning is driving up the per-capita sugar consumption for US residents, we all eat jam a little bit at a time. I like refined cane sugar for the truest fruit flavor.

5. As I mentioned above, a set is dependent upon pectin, sugar, acid and time. When I first began making jams and marmalades without commercial pectin, I relied too much on my thermometer. Now that I'm in my third round of seasons, I've learned to trust my eyes and my taste more than any thermometer. Part of this is that fruit can vary considerably. For example, a recent tangerine and cranberry marmalade began to thicken early and if I had waited for 220 degrees, (the official gel point) I would have had a gummy mess. Cranberries have a ton of pectin and bear close observation. I like to test the set of my jams and marmalades by placing several saucers and spoons in the freezer. I scoop out a bit of jam onto a cold spoon and place it back in the freezer, on the saucer, for a few minutes. Tradition says that if you push the jam with a finger and see wrinkles, your jam is ready. I've also discovered that there is a certain mouth feel that I like, so I taste it. I have discovered that I prefer a soft set over an over-cooked set, which can be gummy. Marmalades that do not include pith or membranes will never set up like commercial marmalades. That is OK with me! I like the zest to be suspended in the very thick syrup with bits of flesh. Yum! Trust me, it will stay on your toast. For such marmalades, I've had to go up as high as 226 degrees. (This is measured by my current thermometer. I'm on my fourth!) After you reach the desired consistency, remove the pot from the heat, skim any foam (by the time marmalade gets good, very little foam remains) and allow it to cool slightly and stir. This helps the bits to be suspended evenly. You may have some floating, but don't worry, it will still taste great.

In the coming weeks, I will be sharing some yummy marmalades that use all this knowledge.

Many thanks to the friends and family who have given me fruit!

Marmalading Magic!

Random Food Fridays - Lucy's Lemon Bars

Scholastic books were a big part of my early school experience. I don't know if getting to pick out a new book generates as much excitement today, but back in the 70's, it was a big deal. Even then, I was interested in cooking and I loved the Peanuts. I can remember working my way through the entire history of Peanuts cartoon books at our public library. I think I must have chosen the Peanut's Cookbook in 5th or 6th grade. I do know that by middle school, I was making these lemon squares to bring to bake sales and Girl Scout events. I still remember the time one of my friend's dad raved about these and asked for the recipe. This is a demonstration of the power of words to young people. That moment is crystalized in my memory, and I still enjoy cooking and sharing today.

I no longer own the Peanut's Cookbook. As I recall, it began to fall apart and I copied my favorite recipes into our family cookbook and let it go. (I probably would never do such a thing today!) According to my notes, the Peanut's Cookbook was first published in 1963 (my natal year) and I had the 1970 Scholastic edition. I copied the recipes into our family cookbook in 1986, the year my daughter was born. I don't remember, but I wouldn't be surprised if culling the cookbooks and organizing the kitchen were a part of the nesting frenzy that occurred before my daughter's birth. It is very unlikely that I undertook such a project any time within her first year.

This is a basic lemon bar recipe and there are many variations across the interwebs. I hope to try some gluten free versions for my BFF, Paula. When I made these this week, I used Meyer Lemons, which have a smooth lemon flavor. For a brighter and more zingy flavor, go for Eureka lemons. My only alterations from the original recipe are that I added the grated zest of one lemon to the custard and will include instructions for using a food processor. These can be doubled and baked in a 9 x 13 pan, but may require a few minutes more in the oven.

Lucy's Lemon Bars
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter (cold)
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (3 is OK and easier to measure!)
dash of salt
(grated zest of one lemon)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the flour, powdered sugar into a bowl or the bowl of your food processor and mix. Cut the butter into cubes and add. Either work in with your hands or pulse in the food processor until the mixture is thoroughly combined and comes together. Pour into a greased 8 x 8 inch bake pan and press the dough into the bottom of the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

While the crust is baking, make the lemon custard layer. Place the eggs, sugar, baking powder, lemon juice and a dash of salt. Add the lemon zest, if desired. Whisk until combined and frothy.

When the crust is done, remove from the oven. Give the custard another stir and pour it over the crust. Place back in the oven and bake another 20-25 minutes. The center should only jiggle slightly when they are done. Remove and place the pan on a cooling rack. Cool completely before cutting into squares. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar. At my house, this makes 9 squares.