A blog of benign neglect

Rhubarb Jam

This is the original recipe.

I cut it down to a small batch, since my rhubarb plant doesn't yield that much at a time.

1. 5 cups of rhubarb
2. 2 1/2 oranges, peeled (but save some of the skin for flavoring!)
3. 4 1/2 cups sugar (I omitted the walnuts since I am allergic to them...)

• Cut up the rhubarb
• Grind the oranges up in a food processor
• Combine sugar with rhubarb and oranges and let sit overnight

• Please check for proper small badge processing procedures!
• Boil in a large sauce pan until jam coats the back of a spoon
• Fill into hot sterilized glass
• Add lids and rings and let glasses cool upside down
• Check if all the glasses are sealed properly

Take that, slimy anarchists!

After my first attempts of planting lettuce were sabotaged by slime-covered, legless anarchists with huge appetites (yes, I do talk about slugs) I came up with a good snail guard... from earlier attempts I know slugs hate sharp stuff on their belly and my neighbor D.'s lettuce survived just fine being covered by simple wire contraptions which snails will not cross!
So I used old yoghurt container (Trader Joe's Greek Yoghurt to be exact) and cut the bottom off. Placed around the plant with no gaps at the bottoms those belly-crawling fiends will get the belly scratch of a life time when trying to get over the containers!

Hach!

Simple fish stew (a good soup for a cold day)

This is one of your "my kitchen is a mess and I clean it up while I am cooking soups" or "I went shopping last week and all I have left are 2 hallibut steaks" affairs...

So, start out with

• about a pound of hallibut, tuna or salmon
  
• 1.5 cups celery
  
• 1.5 cups leeks
  
• 2-3 tbs butter
  
• 3-4 small potatoes
  
• 2 bay leaf
  
• dash of coriander
  
• some herbamere or any other veggy salt
  
• 4 cups of broth (cubes & water. chicken, veggy or whatever combination there of)
  
• 1 tbs of peppercorns
  
• some salted capers
  
• grated lemon or orange zest
  

1. Melt butter and sautee the diced leeks and celery in it with the bayleaf, the peppercorns, the herbamere and coriander
2. Add the broth once once the leeks and celery are nicely translucent.
3. Add the diced potatoes and the fish, lemon zests and capers
4. Soap is done once the potatoes are cooked through or the fish is nice and flakey
5. Flake fish and serve with a dollop of sour cream

For substance you can serve it over dirty rice or you can fancy it up with orange zests, a little orange juice, safran... if you are add some white wine instead of broth your half way to a bouillabaisse!

Italian Shu Mei

C. is into Shu Mei in the moment, but I had a red cabbage that needed to be taken care off... oh, and some pizza dough...

• 1 package frozen Pizza dough
• half a small head of red or white cabbage
• 1/2 pound of mild Italian sausage
• 1 small onion
• 1 apple
• salt, pepper
• 2 tsp of bitter orange jam

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Start browning up the Italian sausage on high heat. When browned, remove meat to a bowl, leaving the fat in the pan.
3. Chop the cabbage, onion and the apple into small pieces
4. Saute cabbage, onion and apple in the sausage fat and add the jam
5. Mix cabbage mix and meat
6. Taste and adjust flavoring with pepper, hot sauce, garlic or chili flakes
7. Cut pizza dough into golf ball size pieces and stretch them out (either by hand or rolling)
8. Fill dough with the filling and close on top
9. Place dumpling upside down on baking sheet
10. Bake until golden brown on the middle rack, about 15-20 min.

My husband turned the rest of the red cabbage in some nice slaw with some plum vinegar, sesame oil, balsamic, adding some pomegranate seeds for sweetness.

C. ate 4 of them which is in our household the equivalent of at least 2 Michelin stars!

Another Halloween, another costume...

Junior want to go as Peter 'Benning' Pan, no - not the lame Disney Pan, but the cool one from "Hook".
So the search for a pair of green corduroys, a gray/green tshirt, a green sweat shirt, a belt, some silk flower leaves and brown tights was on... I found everything but the tights in Goodwill, but still spend a wee bit too much for my taste... The corduroys will be turned into fringed-out shorts, the sweatshirt becomes a vest decorated with leaves... you get the picture!

I still have to buy a Pirate hat and a hook... because what is Peter without his arch enemy??? Arrrggghhhh, mate!

America's Testkitchen Family cookbook - My culinary bible

This is definitely my personal favorite basic cook book... lots of tips on technique, lots of room for variations and a recipe for nearly everything that comes to mind...

Try these 2 classics:

• The Key Lime pie: absolutely easy, even if you use a store-bought crust... a great idea to use evaporated, sweetened milk in the custard... it's the right mix between sweet and tart! Instead of whipped cream, try meringue as a topping


• The Gazpacho: Ok, I straight from this one...
  
• instead of tomato juice, I used tomato paste with water and bouillon cube


• instead of cucumber I used celery


• I added some anchovy paste (nothing goes better with tomatoes) and made a topping out of toasted panko bread crumbs and parmesan

Jam session...

Ever so much the do-it-yourself freak, I love making jam...
So my friend D. and I enrolled in a Preserves class and last week we jammed (oh baby, did we ever!): We tasted about 20 different kinds of Strawberry jams, got mooned by Marge, did some alchemy, and cooked our own jam with store-bought pectin... so much fun!

I was amazed that you can basically make jam out of most fruit with some sugar and some acid... endless possibilities lie before me and I can't wait to get my hand on some more fruit...

Short-cut Pho - first try...

I love Pho -- it's one of the magic things that heal nearly all my ailments (besides chocolate pudding, black cherry jello and shwerma).
I did some research and I found a recipe that I will make at one point, but meanwhile I am trying to find a short cut...

Here is my first try:

• 2 pacakges of Pacific beef broth
  
• 1 onion
  
• 6 cloves
  
• 3 star anis
  
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
  
• grated ginger (about a 1 1/2 teaspoons)
  

I tied the spices up in cheese cloth and let is boil for about 30 minutes... I liked the flavor, but it lacked some heat and some fat... my recipe recommended roasting, but I was short of time

I talked to a friend and she suggested some gelatine to round out the flavor... marrow might be good also to add some fat...

Well, I keep y'all posted

Pea shoots?!?!

First Veggie pick up from the farm. A bag full of weird leaves with beautiful blossoms... can it be? No! Quick glance at my own pea plants... it has to be: Pea shoots!

Well, if you have Pea shoots...

Pea shoot salad

• 1 lbs of pea shoots


• 1 cucumber


• 1 stalk of spring garlic


• 1 tbs honey


• 1 tsp mustard


• 3 tbs white balsamic vinegar


• 4 tbs olive oil


• 1 good dash of sesame oil (hazelnut would be nice too!)
  
• salt, pepper


• 1 hard boiled egg per person
  
• some parmesan
  
• ...and ok, for those with husbands, who always have to change their dishes around: about a cup of cripsy bacon bits (no, not the one out of the can!)

1. wash the pea shoots
   
2. cube the cucumber, chop the garlic stalk
   
3. make the dressing
   
4. Drizzle it over the salad
   
5. Decorate with eggs
   

About salad... I hate that all the small bit are on the bottom, so here my evil scheme to prevent this: Dress the salad leaves separately from the small bits... arrange the salad and then add the cucumber, garlic, parmesan shavings and eggs on top...AHA! ... no more small bits soaking in the dressing at the bottom of the bowl!!

'Call me Paula' pear yellow cake with Hazelnut-Creamcheese icing

C. wanted to have a party for no particular reason, so I called a few neighbors to come over just for fun & cake.
It's a rich cake, so serve small slices and it is a generous recipe... I had enough batter to make a 9 x 13 that was big enough to cut in half...
...oh, and do get creative with the filling/icing!

American Test Kitchen Buttery Yellow Cake:

• 2 3/4 cups cake flour
  
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
  
• 3/4 teaspoon of salt
  
• 16 tbs of butter (Yupp, that's a pound! Paula would be delighted!)
  
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  
• Good dash of vanilla
  
• Some booze for additional flavoring (Amaretto or Grand Manier is nice!)
  

1. Well you know the drill...
2. Cream butter and sugar
3. Add the eggs one by one and scrape the sides
4. Add the flour/baking powder/salt mix, a third at a time
5. Add the milk alternating with the flour...
6. Pour in 9 x 13 cake form or some round cake forms... they don't need to be butters, but a wax paper bottom helps the cake to come out better!
7. Bake at preheated 350 degrees for 20 minutes, rotating once. A square form probably needs another 5 minutes baking. If the sides are baked, but the middle is still a little to liquid, turn the oven off, but leave the cake in the oven for another 5 minutes.
8. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes and than remove from the form.

Cream cheese Icing

• 2 packages of 8 oz cream cheese
  
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  

In this case I added the following:

• 1 cup of toasted, chopped hazelnuts
  
• 1 cup of chopped, canned pears
  
• 1 jigger of the pear syrup
  
• 1 dash of cinnamon
  

1. Whip the whipped cream with the sugar to soft peaks
2. Whip the cream cheese and fold in the whipped cream (this is your basic icing!)
3. Mix half of the icing with the chopped pears, add a jigger of the syrup and cinnamon to taste.
4. Fill the cake with this mixtures
5. Add the hazelnut and a jigger of syrup and cinnamon to the rest of the mixture and cover the cake.
6. Let cake cool for about 2 hours

Well, I bet you could also fill the cake with rhubarb and strawberries...
You definitely taste the butter in this baby and it is really easy -- much better than any cake mix and not much more difficult!