Zounds! Pickles!

These were favors at a rehearsal dinner we went to last summer.  They're delicious, and easy.  And shelf-stable.  (And airplane baggage-compartment-stable, apparently!)  And sweet.  And spicy.  And as canning recipes go, incredibly forgiving because nothing has to reduce or thicken and there's no question about the acidity.  And it's cucumber season, right now  Go make them.

Some canning notes:  You can put these in any size mason/ball jars, so long as you have a pot that those jars can stand up in and still have 1" of space above.  You need 2-part lids: rings and flat seals.  Seals are one-time use.  Check your local hardware store for canning supplies: jars, lids, large funnel, jar tongs, etc.  These CAN (ha!) be made without jar tongs, but full jars are very heavy and unwieldy and glass and full of boiling liquid...and jar tongs are cheaper than a replacement foot after you drop a jar on it.  :-)

Sweet & Zippity Pickles

(source: Carter's Aunt Sara, original source unknown to me)

Supposed yield: 3 pints of pickles, actual yield ~4 pints
(9-22-13 Note: I just made a batch without onions (oops) and fit them into just 3 pint jars.  Don't be afraid to really cram 'em in there.)

2 pounds small cucumbers, in 1/8 to 1/4 inch rounds (don't use waxed cukes from the grocery store)

1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced

2 cups ice

2 Tablespoons salt

Mix these 4 ingredients in a large colander, set it over a bowl, and refrigerate.  Let chill for a couple hours, stirring occasionally.

When your hours are almost up, prep jars:

Wash well all of the jars you think you'll need, plus one.  Lay out a clean dishtowel on the counter for your jars to sit on for filling and cooling.  Fill a large pot (fitting the size requirement in the note above) 3/4 full with water and bring to a boil with the jars and lid RINGS in it.  With a lid on the water will boil more quickly, but not very quickly.

When your hours are up, add to a medium-large saucepan:
3 cups vinegar (apple cider is good, or 2 cups cider vinegar, 1 cup white)
2 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon whole brown mustard seeds

3/4 teaspoon celery seed

3/4 teaspoon whole peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon tumeric

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 3 dried hot peppers (not optional, or you're just making Sweet & Boring Pickles)

Bring to a boil.

While brine heats, rinse cucumbers/onions once and place back into colander.  (Pick out any remaining ice cubes, pickled ice just doesn't work for some reason!)

Once brine boils, add cucumbers/onions.  Stir, and bring to a boil again.

Meanwhile, turn large pot off and add lid SEALS (they need to get hot but not boil).  Pull out jars and lid RINGS, let drain on dishtowel, then stand jars up.

Your pickles have come to a boil, so turn them off.  Ladle pickles into jars, prioritizing cucumbers/onions first, then brine to fit in the spaces.  Mash them down gently with a clean spoon, really pack them in there.  Leave 1/2 inch of space empty at the top of the jar.  If you have more pickles than jar space, leave the extra in the pickle-pot for now.  Wipe jar rims with a clean damp towel.  Fish lid SEALS out of the large pot, set one on top of each jar, and screw down ring until secure-- "finger-tight".  Carefully place lidded jars into large pot.  Add more water as needed so jars are covered by 1 inch.  Cover pot, turn burner back on HIGH.  When water comes to a boil, set a timer for 10 minutes and adjust burner so it stays at a steady boil.

If you had pickles that didn't fit in the jars, put them in a glass container (jar, pyrex tupperware, whatever) with a lid and place in the fridge.  Eat these within a couple weeks.

When the timer goes off, turn burner off.  Carefully pull jars out and set on the dishtowel.  Gently dry off lids.  Listen and watch for the pleasant snap of the lids as they seal and the center sucks down.  Often some jars do this almost immediately, but they're allowed to straggle.  

Let the water in your large pot cool for a couple hours and then use to water plants and trees, they'll love you for it.  Also ladle some still-hot water into the pickle pot to help rinse down the sticky brine-residue.

Check seals after 8-12 hours-- any jars which didn't suck down should go in the fridge and be eaten within a couple weeks.  Fully sealed jars should be stored out of direct sunlight for "up to a year" or "indefinitely" depending on who you ask.

Though good right out of the pickle-pot, these are better after they sit for a couple days.  Enjoy!

Applesauce

Do you know what you need to make homemade applesauce?  Apples.  Water.  Heat+time.  A potato masher.  (Maybe a scale, but if you weighed the apples when you bought them that's close enough.) That's all!!

Peel, core, and slice the apples into small chunks.  Add to a pot with 2 ounces of water per pound of apples (or so).  If you'd like, add some cinnamon and/or a splash of lemon or lime juice.  Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes.  Mash.  Eat.

I used two very large apples, which was about 1.5lbs of apple, and got about 2.5 cups of applesauce from them.  Yum, yum, yum.

Peruvian Chicken and Mexican Corn

How better to celebrate the Fourth of July than with a Latin American dinner? (Okay, so there are probably many ways, but this way was delicious so I don't care.) Peruvian chicken comes from Cooks Illustrated (reproduced here, though it's missing the sugar, see below). The recipe is for a whole roasted chicken, but we had boneless chicken thighs so we used them instead (we halved the marinade for about 1.5 lbs of chicken). Mexican corn is just grilled corn with the addition of mayo (sounds gross but it's not, remember that mayo is just oil and eggs after all), cheese, ancho powder, lime juice and salt. With some brown rice to round it out and a Goose Island Summertime Ale, a good meal was had by all! (All two of us that is.)

Peruvian Chicken Marinade

adapted from Cooks Illustrated

1/4 cup, loosely packed, fresh mint

1 habanero chile (we subbed a jalapeno b/c, guess what, the grocery store was closed)

3 garlic cloves

1 t salt

1 T granulated sugar (sub honey if you like, but don't skip it!)

1/2 tsp of black pepper

1 T ground cumin

1 t pimentón (smoked paprika)

1/2 t dried oregano

2 T olive oil

2 t lime zest

1/4 c lime juice

Mix all ingredients in a small food processor or blender. Marinate chicken (boneless or bone-in chunks, or a whole chicken, or whatever) for 4+ hours. Grill until cooked, outer edges will brown and caramelize and be amazing. Cook time will depend on your chicken choice and grill temperature/temperament. Serve with brown rice or quinoa or potatoes or sweet potatoes or nothing at all.

Mexican Corn

a few ears of corn

mayo

cheese (parm or, ideally, queso añejo)

ancho or other chile powder

lime juice

salt

Prepare corn for grilling: Carefully peel back husks (do not remove!) and pull out all silks. Re-wrap the ear in the husks. Some people like to then soak the ears for 15 minutes in a large bowl of water, but it seems to be totally unnecessary. Either way, grill the corn for 20-30 minutes over moderate heat. Outer husks will char and kernels will be tender (stab with a fork if you're unsure, but it's hard to overcook it.) Once it's barely cool enough to handle, peel back husks and slather in mayonnaise (good stuff please), then sprinkle heavily with cheese, spritz with lime juice, and dust with chile powder and salt. Eat while still warm. Wonder why you haven't moved to Mexico yet.

Ginger Pear Skillet Cake

I'm a bit late on this again, sorry... I made this in, erm, early January. The recipe is straight out of a really pretty cookbook called "Farmers' Market Desserts", which I bought not 1, not 2, but 3 copies of last summer... (Not all for me, honest!) I used "Asian pears", which surely have a real name but I don't know it. They're about the size and shape of a Granny Smith, and they taste like pears but have nice bite (think a really juicy apple) when ripe. And they seem to ripen more gracefully than pear-shaped-pears, I've noticed. I have to say I almost made this cake with apples instead of pears, but the compromise worked out very very well. Without too much further ado, Ginger Pear Skillet Cake:

(from Jennie Schact's cookbook, see above)

She claims that this serves 8-10, but see, it's not really a dessert-cake and is likely to disappear rapidly and at all hours a la, well, cake. But it's good for you! Molasses is full of iron (and manganese, apparently)! Also, I left out the 3 ingredients that are supposed to get sprinkled on top of the pears before baking b/c they were on the back of the page so I didn't see them at the time...no unpleasant side effects were observed.

the recipe, finally:

2.5 c AP flour (I replaced almost a cup with whole wheat flour)

1.5 t ground ginger

1 t salt

1 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground allspice

1/4 t ground cloves

3/4 c canola oil

1/2 c "gently" packed brown sugar

1/2 c unsulfured molasses

1/2 c plain yogurt or sour cream (I ended up using a bit of buttermilk to round out the half cup)

1 T finely grated fresh ginger

1 egg

1 t baking soda (not "baking sofa", as I originally typed)

1/2 c hot strong coffee

turn the cookbook page over to see:

1 T butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 325, oil a 10 or 11 in cast iron skillet. (Yes, okay, you could make this in a springform pan or even a 10 inch cake pan, but then it wouldn't be skillet cake, would it?)

Stir together flour, salt and spices (minus fresh ginger).

Whisk together egg, oil, brown sugar, molasses, yogurt, fresh ginger, and any other wet-ish ingredients I left out of that list until smooth. Stir in half of the flour. Mix baking soda/sofa into the coffee, then add that to the batter. Stir in remaining flour. Pour/glop into skillet and smooth top. Slice a few pears on top, arranging artfully (or scientifically). Then either do what Ms. Schact intended and sprinkle remaining butter/sugar/salt on top, or do what I did and just put the thing straight in the oven. Bake for about an hour, or until the top springs back when you poke it and it passes the toothpick test. Let cool for at least 20 minutes. No need to unmold it-- serve straight out of the skillet. I would have a picture of a slice or something if I hadn't been too busy stuffing my face. You know how it is. I only got the picture below b/c it was waaayyy to hot to be eating it yet.

A note on the spices: for heaven's sake don't be stingy. I know it says 1 t of cinnamon, but it's competing with molasses and Ms. Schact is a self-professed disliker of cloves, so you can double up all of those without much worry.

Candied Grapefruit Rind

It was snowing, so I took after this post and made candied citrus rinds! Grapefruit, from some delicious Texas grapefruits, yum. I would recommend that one boil the rinds a fifth time, as the four that were recommended still left them a bit bitter...

So, to do this yourself:

Halve and scoop the flesh from a few grapefruits (and eat it!)

Put them in a pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and pour off the water.

Repeat 4 times.

Let rinds cool slightly and slice them prettily.

Using enough water to cover the slices in the pot, make a 2:1 simple syrup (that's twice as much sugar as water, by volume).

Boil the slices in the syrup for 20 minutes,

then strain them out and let cool on a rack until tacky (4+ hours). Save the syrup for...I'm not sure what yet. Grapefruit mojitos?

Meanwhile, make a bit of superfine sugar (sugar+food processer=superfine sugar).

Dredge slices in superfine sugar,

let dry for 12+ hours, then put in airtight jars.

Yum!

Cinnamon Rolls

Unfortunately, the blog that this came from (What Geeks Eat) is down! And I didn't write the recipe down anywhere...hopefully it'll be back up soon.

Autumn Soup

Ack, it seems we missed October! Who's in charge around here anyways? Though to be honest this soup was made in October, it just took me until today to be avoiding work so hardcore that I'm posting something. I didn't actually make this, I just invented it and typed up the "recipe" and Carter made it and then I adjusted it (like I do) and we ate it. And it was awesome. Truly, truly awesome. It could easily be vegetarian if you leave out the sausage (but if you aren't sausage-averse keep it in!!). Here's how it goes:

ingredients:

3 largish potatoes, chopped (peeled if you want)

1 bunch leeks, light parts sliced (dark green parts not needed)

1 celeriac bulb, peeled and chopped

3 or 4 carrots, chopped

8+ cloves garlic

1 qt (or more) stock (chicken/turkey/pork/veggie)

chicken bouillon cube or salt

a few heavy shakes of marjoram

3 bay leaves

much black pepper

1 c. half and half (or less cream)

8in section of kielbasa or andoiulle sausage

do this:

Roast garlic, then peel them and leave whole.

In a large pot, saute leeks until they're starting to brown, then add everything but garlic and saute for a few more minutes.

Add garlic, spices, stock and then 4 or 5 cups of water until the pot is at least about half full. Simmer for 1-2 hours. When it's cooked, rescue the bay leaves and puree about half of the soup in the blender. Add cream, adjust seasonings, remove from heat.

Meanwhile: broil, grill, or otherwise cook your sausage. Cut into bite-size pieces and toss into the soup just before serving. Garnish with parsley and eat with rustic bread.

Mixed Berry Tart!

I recently made this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Strawberry-Mascarpone-Tart-with-Port-Glaze-352272 But with raspberries (black, purple and red) and blueberries instead of strawberries. It. Was. Amazing. I boiled a handful of raspberries and a dash of sugar with the port, which made a delicious glaze which would be really amazing on pancakes. (In fact, I saved most of it in my fridge for that purpose.) Oh and I used lime juice/zest instead of lemon because that's what I had. Other than that, I followed the recipe. I took no pictures because I have no camera still/again, but it was beautiful. Go pick some berries and make yourself one!!

Tortilla española in fotos

Start with a few handfuls of potatoes,

slice into 1/4" slablets,

and fry in olive oil

until brown but not crisp.

Chop a handful of green onions

and fry in leftover oil.

Crack 7 eggs for a 10 inch skillet,

add a fair measure of salt,

and beat into oblivion.

Layer potatoes on top of the onions,

pour in the eggs,

And cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the edges look set. Then broil for 5 minutes (top will become fully set) and let cool for another 5.

(Eat!)

recipe from: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/spanish_tortilla/

Pimentón!

I got a fabulous present of some pimentón recently and, well, it's fabulous. (What is it? Smoked Spanish paprika.) I've only used it on one thing so far (turnips), but look forward to such things as pimentón'd chicken paprikash, pimentón'd fried eggs, pimentón'd pork chops, and pimentón'd quinoa with greens... For more ideas see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/dining/24mini.html and http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/pimenton-junkies-have-your-say/ (Mark Bittman's recipe for pimentón'd swordfish and his call for pimentón ideas from others, respectively.)

Back to the turnips: they were easy. A few handfuls of turnips(chopped)+a few cloves of garlic (chopped)+some onion(chopped)+olive oil(a heavy drizzle)+pimentón(a few shakes)+salt+pepper, roasted in a pyrex dish at 400 for about 35 minutes, stirred every ten minutes or so. I put in some rosemary too (before I remembered about the pimentón) but it wasn't enough to influence the taste at all, as far as I could tell.

No pictures today (sorry), so you'll just have to make it for yourself to experience the beautiful deep orange color the olive oil turns and the golden crispy reddish turnips... Or make something else with it...and let me know!

Cardamom Bread

I might christen this carda-yum bread! It's easy and delicious and it makes the kitchen both warm and wonderful-smelling! (All of these things are pluses.)

This recipe comes from the Razor Family Farms blog-- http://razorfamilyfarms.com/cooking/ and has only slight alterations, but I'll repost it anyways...

Cardamom Bread (ala http://razorfamilyfarms.com/cooking/cardamom-bread-sweet-and-rustic/)

4 c. AP flour

1/2 T. cardamom

1 1/2 T. yeast

1 1/4 c. warm milk (soy or dairy) or water or some combination-- I usually use 3/4 c. soymilk and 1/2 c. water

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. oil

1 shy t. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

Mix flour and cardamom in a large bowl (of your mixer, if you'd like). Dissolve sugar and then yeast in warm liquid. Pour into dry stuff and mix until doughy. Add oil and mix until doughy again (and oily--it won't all absorb yet). Cover with a plate and let rest for 20 minutes.

Thoroughly knead in the salt (I use my hands, but you could use the dough hook), and extra flour as needed to achieve the right consistency. (Like most dough, it should feel like an earlobe-- warm and elastic and soft.) Oil a baking sheet. Divide dough into thirds and place far apart on the baking sheet. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes, or until almost doubled in bulk. (This will take many hours if your house is chilly-- try preheating the oven for just 30 seconds and letting it rise there, with the oven light on-- ideal rising temperature is around 90 degrees F.)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll each dough lump into a long snake and braid together. Pinch the ends together firmly and fold them under.

Brush the braid with beaten egg and bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Sometimes I make two smaller braided loaves and they only take about 20 minutes. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes before you cut into it (it's torturous) for best texture later on. Enjoy!

The picture doesn't really do it justice...

Lemon Gruyere Grits and Chili Baked Fish

I just want to say that I LOVE GRITS. Ok now that that's out of the way, I can't believe that our southern roots haven't been more exposed. Well that's going to change. Tonight I was in the mood of something creamy, savory, and all together scrumptious! Also, I had some fish that needed to be eaten. What's the best way to combine those two needs you say? Well I still don't know but I did a pretty damn good job with the following recipe. It may sound a little fishy at first but I urge you to try it. Have we ever disappointed you?

First: The Fish

Alaskan Pollok Fish is a nice, white fish with a firm texture and a flavor similar to cod. It lends itself well to just about any flavor combination and it just happen to be on sale the other day!

To prepare Fish
-Coat in butter milk
-Mix bread crumbs with some chili powder, garlic powder, and salt
-Roll fish in bread crumbs
-Bake at 350 for 20 min (maybe less if the fish is a bit thin)

Next: The Grits

-1 Cup White Corn Grits (not the instant kind, shame on you)
-4 Cups Water
-1 Cup Shredded Gruyere
-The zest of 1/2 a lemon

Preparation
-In a pan combine grits and water. Simmer over medium low heat stirring occasionally. These have a tendency to stick to the bottom so be careful. The grits will slowly absorb water slowly and after about 20mins or so have a 'soupy' look to them. Take them off the heat at this point and add your cheese and lemon zest. If you've timed it right your fish is done too and all that is left is to put it all in a bowl and enjoy!

Sorry of the lack of pictures. My camera is still being held hostage by my parents. It shall return after thanksgiving.

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Pudding

Sounds a bit unappetizing, right? Well it's not. It's amazing. Zero taste of tofu, excellent texture (though admittedly more like mousse than pudding, perhaps), and amazingly rich and chocolatey. Also, super quick and easy.

Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding (from NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/201mrex.html?_r=1&ref=dining adapted slightly)

3/4 cup sugar

1 package silken tofu

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted (I used 1 generous cup semisweet chips and 1 oz unsweetened chocolate)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. cayenne

1/2 t. orange extract

1/4 t. allspice

Heat sugar and water until dissolved. Blend all ingredients until smooth. Chill for 30 minutes or more. Eat.

Note: You need to sign up for a (free) online account with NY Times to view the original recipe.

No cHard Feelings

No pictures today because I'm tired of arguing with my (5 year-old) camera about its flash settings and what to focus on. I was potentially going to buy a super-spiffy and cheap Canon s3is from a friend of mine, but someone else got it first....drat! Meanwhile, I made a super-delicious pasta primvera-esque dinner tonight, complete with rainbow chard from the farm my sister works on! (It's not too hot to grow greens in the summer in NY state!) But it's not actually springtime, so I dub this:

Pasta Verano (Italian/Spanish meld-phrase!)

Pasta:
1/2 lb. pasta (I used fettuccine)
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

Veg:
2 T. mixture of canola and olive oils
1/2 onion, sliced
1 summer squash/zucchini, sliced
1 small bunch chard (rainbow or otherwise), ribbed and chopped (reserve greens separately from ribs)
1 handful fresh basil leaves, snipped
1 gorgeous tomato, chopped
2 large gloves garlic, minced
red chili flakes to taste

Saute onions, squash and chard ribs over medium-low heat until almost tender, 5-8 minutes. Add chard greens, basil, tomato, garlic and chili flakes and cover. Cook for 2-4 minutes or until greens are wilted.

CONCURRENTLY:
Make pasta. When it's cooked drain but DO NOT RINSE. Return to pot and crack an egg over it. Stir vigorously for about 75 seconds. The egg will get frothy and then creamy-- it should not turn into little scrambled egg bits. Salt and pepper generously.

Combine veg and pasta and serve hot.

The egg-in-pasta idea came from two sources, one: Make do and make it good and the other: What Geeks Eat.

Rainbow chard in its farm life:

(photo copyright Christina Schubert, 2009)

Vanilla Custard with Cantaloupe and Basil

Over the summer I had lunch at Cafe Gutenberg in Richmond, VA. After an excellent lunch (I had some sort of sandwich as I recall) they happened to have a muskmelon-basil custard for dessert, which had won them some sort of award in a cooking competition the day before. Intrigued, we ordered it. It was amazing! As I recall, the custard itself was muskmelon-flavored, with chopped basil on it (maybe also through it, I don't quite remember). The sweetness of the custard base went well with the sunny melon flavor, and the basil added a nice twist. I recently found myself with an heirloom cantaloupe-of-some-variety and an excess of milk, so I took a stab at a version of this excellent summer dessert.

I remain fairly convinced that you cannot put the melon in with the custard while it's hot-- cooked melon doesn't sound appetizing and would do interesting things to the texture I think. So I made a simple vanilla custard, ala Southern Living, reproduced below. I should have gone a bit light on the sugar, as it turned out almost cloyingly sweet. (Luckily the basil helped cut it a bit.) It didn't set up as much as perhaps it should have, maybe because I halved the recipe and my pot may have been a bit large-- letting it boil too quickly, etc, etc.

It was 10:30PM when I decided to put the melon/basil bits together with the custard, so I simply cut a wedge of melon, spooned on some custard, and snipped some fresh basil for a generous garnish. When I have more time I will consider pureeing the melon and basil together and straining off some of the liquid (to drink, yum!) before mixing that into the custard base. Of course, that would work better if the custard were more firm to start out with-- I may just end up with chilled melon-basil-custard soup! (Of course, that sounds fabulous too...) I'll let you know what I get up to tomorrow in the way of making the three ingredients meld more. As it was, the basil chunks flavored the custard somewhat, and alternating bites of custard with bites of melon did the trick.


Half Vanilla Custard Recipe (reproduced from http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=520254)

1/4 cup sugar--USE LESS!
1.5 T. cornstarch
1/4 t. salt
2 egg yolks
1.5 cups milk
1 T. butter or margarine
1 t. vanilla extract

Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat (about 20 minutes), whisking constantly; boil, whisking constantly, 1 minute or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Chill two hours.

Another serving suggestion (Day Two edit):
Tonight I finely diced the cantaloupe (if you cut a wedge of melon and cross-hatch the flesh with a paring knife you can scoop the meat off the rind in neat cubes!) and the basil, and mixed those in with the custard. After all that stirring the custard had the consistency of yogurt, which was fine. The flavors blended a lot better-- in fact I'd consider doing this with the whole batch of custard and letting it sit in the fridge for a day to marry the flavors. Of course, it's not as pretty of a presentation as custard-with-orange-and-green-lumps. Suit yourself. Also, I now want to try yogurt with basil in it, and raspberries perhaps...

Goulash

It was chilly (only 75!) and overcast today, which made it perfect for stew. Goulash is Hungarian I think, and is essentially oniony, paprikay beef stew. Yum! It also happens to be very very easy to make, as all good stew should be. This is my parents' recipe (if you can even call it that), and they always make it in the pressure cooker, allowing one to go from raw to stew in about 30 minutes. I have no pressure cooker and didn't think far enough ahead to put this in the CrockPot (though you easily could), so I just made it in a pot on the stove, the old-fashioned way. The amount of this recipe is enough for 2 decently-sized portions-- two dinners or a dinner and leftovers-for-lunch!

Start with 1/2 lb stew beef (or lamb I suppose). I cut mine into smaller chunks to encourage it to cook more quickly. In two batches, brown it in a combination of canola and olive oils. You only want the meat to brown, don't worry if it's still raw in the middle. Remove from the pan and add two large handfuls of sliced onions. Brown those also, adding more oil as necessary. Deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine, then add the meat back in, along with a beef boullion cube, 3-4 T. of [mild Hungarian] paprika, 1/2 t. cayenne or hot paprika and enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook until the meat is tender-- about 20 minutes in a pressure cooker, 90 minutes on the stovetop, or 4+ hours in a CrockPot. Keep an eye on it and add more water as needed. When the meat was almost tender I added about an extra half cup of water and when that reached a rolling boil, three handfuls of uncooked egg noodles. 9 minutes later I had a one-pot goulash+noodles dinner! Serve with plenty of freshly cracked black pepper. On a whim I added some fresh basil for garnish and discovered that it complements the paprika and beef flavors excellently! I plan on throwing a few more leaves in with my leftovers.

Golden Key Lime Butter Cookies for Mom's Golden Birthday

09/09/09 is the date of my mother's birthday this year. As my Aunt Debbie recently pointed out, this is her 'golden' birthday. To celebrate I thought I might make some golden butter cookies with key lime icing and send them to her. Butter cookies are some of the easiest cookies to make~they only take 5 ingredients. The following is a set by step picture guide just because I can!

Recipe:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups AP flour
1 cup corn starch
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl.


Sift flour, cornstarch, and salt in and use a fork to combine.
*note: using beaters here will over work your flour and make for really tough cookies.


When things are looking well and truly combined start pulling everything together with your hands. You should end up with a crumbly but well formed ball.


Refrigerate your dough for about 20 minutes so it's nice and firm and easy to roll. Then preheat your oven to 325. Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface and cut cookies till your hearts content.


I didn't have cookie cutters (something I have since remedied) so I used a champagne glass to get nice round cookies.


While the cookies were baking I whipped together some simple lime icing.

Icing recipe:
1/2 cup powered sugar
1 tsp key lime juice
Enough water to get whatever consistency you want

I wanted my icing to be drizzlable so I made it pretty thin

Then I put a thin layer on my cookies once they were cool.


Then I mailed the cookies to my mommy! She loved them! So go do something nice for your mommy, you'll be glad you did.

Cuminy Tofu Stirfry

Tonight's meal is brought to you by both Epicurious and What Geeks Eat. I was wandering around on the internet last night and found What Geeks Eat for the first time, and really enjoyed both the recipes and the quite excellent photos. As soon as I buy more yeast I intend to make her cinnamon rolls and maybe the snickerdoodles too. Yum... Anyways, what inspired me was her marinated, pan-fried tofu recipe. I didn't reference her recipe at all as I was going, but I did remember one very important thing she said, which is to leave the tofu alone. Yes, it's in a pan on medium heat and anything else that size would be burnt to a crisp after 8-10 minutes per side, but just leave it. Don't push it around, and don't peek until at least 8 minutes have gone by. The cumin part of the stir fry is a hold over from when I made "cumin-scented stir-fried beef with celery" a few months ago. I had never considered putting cumin in a stir fry, but it is simply fabulous. Especially if there are mushrooms involved, because they soak up the flavor like nothing else and mmmmmm. I just love the way cumin smells, and tragically the whole house now smells like it! As with all stirfries, use whatever veggies you've got-- I happenned to have green beans, onions, and portabellas. Mushrooms are highly recommended. Anyways, on to my approximate recipe:

Marinade:
1 large splash vinegar (apple cider or white are fine)
1 large splash soy sauce
1/2" ginger knob, microplaned or otherwise liquefied
1/2" t. cumin

Combine ingredients in a shallow dish or ziploc bag. Lay in 1/2 block extra-firm tofu, sliced into 1/2" slabs and patted dry with paper towels. Allow to marinate for about an hour, turning a few times. When you take the tofu out to cook it, reserve the marinade that didn't absorb.

Start water for noodles (I had soba on hand so I had to boil them, not just soak) or rice.

Heat a few generous tablespoons of canola oil in a skillet to medium, then lay in the tofu slabs and leave them be for 8 minutes. Really. They are browning very, very slowly. When they reach a nice deep golden brown, flip them and be patient with the other side too.


Then remove to a plate (perhaps in a warm oven) and cook up:


1 small onion, sliced
1 large handful green beans, snapped
1 large handful sliced portabella mushrooms (about 2 caps)

In the same skillet and remaining oil, cook onions on medium for 2-3 minutes. Add beans and mushrooms and saute for 2-3 minutes longer. Then add:

1-2 t. ground cumin
1/2 T. vinegar
1 T. soy sauce
1/2" ginger knob, microplaned
1-2 cloves garlic, microplaned
1 t. hot pepper flakes
2 T. water
plus the leftover marinade


Allow veggies to simmer in the sauce for 5 minutes or so, or until they are tender. At this point you can thicken any remaining sauce (mix one forkful cornstarch into about 1/4 c. water until smooth, then pour into sauce will stirring) or leave it be. Plate over rice or noodles, with a tofu slab on top.


I have now officially returned from my "I'm too lazy and it's too hot to cook" hiatus!