A Kitchen Mystery

For a number of weeks, people have often asked inquired about the large bucket in the corner of our kitchen.  In July, it held held sour cherries that I bought in bulk from a place in Michigan, but no longer.  Any guesses?

Sauerkraut!  One week Mary and I received two huge heads of cabbage in our CSA share.  What to do when you have more vegetables than you can deal with in one week? Preserve it, of course!  The question was how.

I'd previously seen a reference somewhere to making sauerkraut at home, and after a little internet research, became convinced that it's actually very easy.  And so it was!  We chopped up all the cabbage, layered it with salt, packed it down, poured on some extra salt water to make sure the cabbage was totally immersed, covered with cheesecloth, weighted it down with two ziploc bags filled with water, and let it sit undisturbed!  Read all about what exactly happens in the process here (something called lacto-fermentation).

Four weeks later (At least? Maybe more? I can't recall when we started this), here's the result.

 We had its inaugural eating with some bratwursts before the football game last weekend.  Yum!

Green Beans, Take 2

I was headed home today daydreaming about making szechuan green beans, but when I actually got back, in a sheer fit of laziness (not wanting to walk an extra 20 feet to grab my computer and look up my recipe), I decided to look for  recipes in the cookbooks by the kitchen.  Am I ever glad that I did.  The second book I pulled off the shelf was More Best Recipes by the folks of Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen.  In this book series (I'm told that their Best 30-Minute Recipe is one of the top cookbooks around), the editors take a fairly common food and, through dozens and dozens of test runs and experiments, come up with the perfect, foolproof recipe.

Well, after checking the index, I discovered that a full four pages were devoted to green beans, both sauteed and roasted.  The common problem they saw with the former was that by the time the beans were cooked, the outsides were usually black and burnt.  Their solution?  Saute the green beans for six minutes, add a small bit of water and cover the pan, thus steaming them for two minutes, then uncover and turn up the heat to evaporate any leftover water, and finish sauteeing along with the flavorings/spices for two more minutes.  The result? Perfection.  Just the right amount of browning and wrinkling, fully cooked, yet still with a crisp bite.

Luckily for you, this recipe (along with variations, but without the long explanation of the recipe's development) is online!  I made the first variation, with smoked paprika and almonds.

Cook's Illustrated Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic and Herbs

Green Beans Galore

This morning I headed out to a friend's family's small farm in Michigan.  Thanks to their generosity, another gal and I each came back with two buckets full of green beans after about an hour and a half of work.  This afternoon I've been blanching and freezing them.  One thing I like to do with fresh beans is to make Szechuan Green Beans like they serve at J. W. Chen's (see the previous post).  I actually didn't remember the name of the dish when I tried to replicate it, but it turns out that what I did is pretty similar to recipes online.  You'll also find my attempt at their Honey Chicken later in this post.

Green Beans à la Mrs. Chen's

• 12 oz. fresh green beans (there's no good reason for that quantity, it's simply the amount I happened to get from CSA last week)
• 1-2 T sesame oil
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tsp. fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. sherry
• 1/4 tsp. sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Heat oil in saucepan on medium-high. Add garlic and ginger and sauté for one minute. Add green beans and cook, stirring frequently, until they are dark green and crisp-tender.  Stir in remaining ingredients and continue to heat for a minute or two.

Honey Chicken à la Mrs. Chen's 

For this, I started with an online recipe but made some major adjustments.  The sauce would easily work with stir-fried chicken instead of batter-fried.

• 1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1" pieces
• oil for deep frying

Batter:

• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup water

Sauce (some of the amounts are approximate; I was unaware of exactly how much I added of various things):

• 1 1/2 T. oil
• 1 T. ginger, minced
• 3 T. garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. honey
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 T. rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 T. cornstarch, mixed with 1 T. water

• Sesame seeds (to garnish)

1. Mix all ingredients for batter, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes.  Be ye not surprised, it will be fairly thin.

2. Heat oil to 350 degrees.  Coat chicken with batter and deep fry in batches until thoroughly cooked and golden.  Drain on paper towels.

3. To make sauce, saute ginger and garlic in the oil in a medium saucepan.  Mix in all remaining ingredients except cornstarch, stirring well.  Add cornstarch mixture and simmer until thick.

4. Coat chicken with sauce, and garnish with sesame seeds.  Accompany with rice.

Serves 4.

Culinary adventures

Given the vast (read "slightly more than usual") amount of free time we have this summer, a couple friends and I decided to spend a leisurely Saturday afternoon in the kitchen. We were interested in trying out this recipe for homemade ricotta, and, also anxious to use up a pound of CSA chard, decided to cook up a Swiss Chard Lasagna with Ricotta and Mushroom.  For dessert we had Apfelstrudel, which I learned to make from an Austrian friend whose grandmother taught her.  I've vowed not to write down a recipe (and I don't even know know specific ingredient amounts), always relying on my learning experience.  Let me know if you'd like me to pass it on to you!

Making the ricotta cheese was very easy.  You boil milk and cream to a certain temperature, stir in lemon juice, let it sit, and then strain.  After an hour or two we were left with about 16 oz. of cheese and a few cups of whey.  We used some of the whey in place of water in a loaf of white bread, but it has many culinary uses, and even as the basis for a soda in the cheese-making-and-thus-whey-overload-having country of Switzerland.




















The  lasagna turned out quite well though incredibly rich (especially with the homemade ricotta).  I actually like and recommend this other (and lighter) vegetable lasagna just as much.  The new recipe had the very interesting addition of nutmeg to the sauce, and I think that would work quite well in either recipe.  One could also replace the spinach with chard in the latter and add mushrooms.

Thanks friends for your hard work!!

Remember Those Radishes?

Remember those radishes I got from my CSA?  Well I ate one raw, and was again reminded that I really don't like to eat radishes.  I discovered that you can cook them in various ways (sauté, boil, steam, roast, etc.) and it removes their characteristic bite.  Some folks might think this removes the reason to eat a radish in the first place, but I'm glad to have found a way I can eat them.  It's better than a slow death by rotting in the vegetable bin!  You'll find the first recipe I tried below.  If my farmer shows up with more radishes on Thursday there's another recipe I have in mind.  This one worked out pretty well, though.

Butter-Braised Radishes with Their Greens

Adapted from The Flexitarian Table

1 large bunch of radishes
3 T butter
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 T white wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg.

Cut leaves from radishes, leaving about a 1/2 inch of greens on the radishes.  Wash greens and chop very coarsely. (I accidentally neglected the latter part of that! I do think it would bet better with the greens chopped slightly, otherwise they come out rather stringy).  Cut larger radishes in half or even quarters, if necessary, to achieve uniform size.

In a medium saucepan (I think I used about a 7-inch one, after first starting with something way too big [see photo]) melt the butter, brown sugar and salt over medium heat, then add the water and radishes and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer until radishes are slightly cooked (so they can be pierced with little pressure with a knife but not mushy), about 3-5 minutes.

Place greens over the radishes, cover pan, and simmer gently until greens are emerald color and tender, about 5 minutes.  Remove greens and radishes and transfer to a bowl.  (It's good to get as much liquid out of the greens if possible, placing them on paper towels or draining them in a colander.  Just don't discard the liquid!)

Add vinegar, pepper, and nutmeg to the pan liquid and boil uncovered until it becomes syrupy, about 5 minutes (They originally said two minutes, but that was certainly not long enough.  I was never pleased with the consistency and might even use some cornstarch next time to artificially thicken it). Season to taste with salt and/or sugar.  Coat the radishes and greens with the sauce and serve.

Update

It's summer now for me, which, though I have plenty of work, means more time to make things and update this blog!  Our community garden is unfortunately going to be late, but should be getting started soon, as well.

Yesterday one of my friends came over and we tackled homemade ravioli.  We started around 5:30 and finished around 8:30 (though that included a run to the grocery store for some forgotten ingredients).  It took a good bit of elbow grease as we didn't have a pasta machine, but it worked nonetheless!

We followed a great pasta-making tutorial from here and here, and filled the ravioli with this delicious butternut squash-goat cheese puree.  The only things I'd do differently from the recipes are a) use less salt when roasting the squash, leaving room to season the filling later and b) use half semolina flour in the pasta.  We used 100% all-purpose (which she says is allowable), but the texture was not terribly firm and made it harder to control the shape of the pasta.  Semolina flour is supposed to be sturdier.

The ravioli was accompanied by roasted purple asparagus I picked up on a trip to the farmers' market on Saturday.  I couldn't resist the tables piled high with local asparagus--both green and purple--and stopped to ask the owner of one stand what the difference between them was.  He told me to find out for myself, and proceeded to slice off part of a stalk and hand it over.  In general it tasted like--you guessed it--asparagus, though perhaps a little milder.  According to Wikipedia, the purple cultivar was developed in the region around Albenga, Italy, and is higher in sugar and lower in fiber than its green counterpart.  Sadly, it turns green after prolonged cooking, though apparently a quick sauté will not affect the color.