Cooking with gas

The guests have gone home, the mornings have an autumn chill, and I have veg and fruit to deal with.

The good news is that the tomatoes and tomatillos produced after all!  I took the advice offered and just waited to see if I´d get a crop, and while a number were brown and blotchy from the blight, there are quite a few perfectly acceptable tomatoes.  There is also, for the first time, some blossom end rot.

Mostly it´s obvious, as in the upper case here.  But, I have also found rot inside some that were apparently perfect on the outside, just as a word to the wise.  One of the benefits of quartering and roasting the tomatoes before saucing, I guess.

The tomatillos finally sized up on the ones I planted earliest.  Also roasted for salsa.  If only there were some cilantro left, but it all bolted weeks ago.  Hoping for at least one more picking and will try mixing in some golden tomatoes to the pan.

The potatoes were small and not very numerous and a number were nibbled.  As were these, so I pulled them all.  No sense encouraging the varmints.

And it´s a great apple year.  So I tried another apple pie recipe from Smitten Kitchen - Dutch Apple Pie, and I´m glad to report that it´s delish, and our apples didn´t turn to mush in the oven!

The crust is interesting on this one, more like cookie dough and not as elastic as short crust, and I´m afraid I rolled it out too thin, it wanted to collapse in the latticing.  And I had no raisins on hand, so I threw in a handful of walnuts.  But tasty, nonetheless, and I may be enjoying it for breakfast.

Hope your harvests are plentiful!

Garbanzos with Pumpkin

And another pumpkin recipe.  This one comes from my MIL, who kept asking when the squashes would be ripe, back in August.  I´m sending her a couple of big ones for Christmas.


Olive oil
1 medium onion
Garlic cloves to taste
1 medium pepper - red or green
2 cups cubed squash or pumpkin
2 medium tomatoes or 1 can puree
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
2 tablespoons oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
1 jar prepared garbanzos
1 chorizo sausage (optional)

Saute the onion, a few garlic cloves, the green or red pepper in olive oil until soft.  Add the tomato and when back to simmering, the pumpkin.  Cook until soft, about half an hour.  At this point I add a glug of white wine and the salt and pepper, then the chorizo and bring back to simmer.  Let simmer about an hour, stirring occasionally, then add the oregano and drained garbanzos.  Remove the chorizo, slice, and replace. Cook another half an hour, adjust seasoning and serve.  You may find you have to add more liquid if it gets too thick.  If you leave out the chorizo, cooking time will be reduced accordingly.

Warm and filling for a winter lunch!

Pumpkin Muffins

I see a theme is developing. 

We had a week or so of below zero temperatures, then a storm from the north blew in with high winds and 5 inches of rain in less than a day, and now we´re alternating fog with drizzle, more rain later.  So, it´s basically impossible to do much outside, though I´m collecting fallen stuff for Christmas decorations when I´m out with the dog.

Back to my old favorite Smitten Kitchen.  Lovely pumpkin muffins, even though I burnt the entire first batch, it was my own fault for substituting ingredients and not watching the oven.

I used half brown sugar, and half brown bread flour that I get from Lidl, but the rest of the recipe was followed reasonably closely.  Got 18 muffins per batch and they do keep well.  We´re on day 3.

From the above link:

Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from the American club, in Kohler, Wisconsin via Gourmet Magazine

New favorite adaptation 10/28/13, Sweet Potato Muffins: Roast a medium-to-large orange-fleshed sweet potato (pricked all over with a fork, at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour) until very tender. Let cool completely. (Can do this a day in advance; store in fridge.) Either mash or run potato flesh through a potato ricer. Measure 1 1/3 cup from this and continue with recipe below as printed.
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (have successfully swapped whole wheat flour for half)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice (or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + 1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg + 1/4 teaspoon ginger + pinch of ground cloves and allspice)
1 cup (original recipe) to 1 1/3 cup (what I use these days; makes it even more rich) canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15 ounce can, not pumpkin pie filling, which is sweetened and spiced)
1/3 cup vegetable or another neutral cooking oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put liners in 12 standard-sized muffin cups.

Stir or whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spice in small/medium bowl.

In a larger bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs and 1 1/4 cups sugar. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined. Divide batter among muffin cups (each about 3/4 full).

Stir together last tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle over each muffin.

Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Do ahead: Most muffins don’t keep well, but these are excellent on Day 2 (after being stored in an airtight container at room temperature) and not bad at all on Day 3. If longer, I’d keep them in the freezer until needed.

Stuffed Pumpkin

A belated Thanksgiving lunch idea, since I have an abundance of pumpkins.  Recipe from Epicurious here.

My first idea was to use a Long Island cheese small enough to fit in the oven whole.  Unfortunately, it had a crack in the bottom that made it unworkable, and the rest are all too big.  So I turned to the small New England pie pumpkins I was saving for, well, pie.

My technique favors the rustic, so the bread, bacon and cheese were all in rather larger pieces than you might prefer.  I used equal amounts of gouda, cheddar and swiss cheese.  I added a sliced chorizo as well, although frankly I don´t think it needed it, the bacon would have been just fine.  This pumpkin made 4 generous portions.

I have questions about the logistics of baking a pumpkin for 2 hours just when you´d want the turkey to be cooking, but will leave that for others to figure out.  It did take just about 2 hours, with the top off of the pumpkin for the last 20 minutes or so.  And it sliced beautifully into halves and quarters for serving.

From the above link, with suggestions for serving and making vegetarian variations:

Ingredients

1. • 1 pumpkin, about 3 pounds
   • Salt and freshly ground pepper
   • 1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
   • 1/4 pound cheese, such as Gruyère, Emmenthal, cheddar, or a combination, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
   • 2-4 garlic cloves (to taste), split, germ removed, and coarsely chopped
   • 4 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped (my addition)
   • About 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or sliced scallions (my addition)
   • 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme (my addition)
   • About 1/3 cup heavy cream
   • Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Preparation

1. 1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment, or find a Dutch oven with a diameter that's just a tiny bit larger than your pumpkin. If you bake the pumpkin in a casserole, it will keep its shape, but it might stick to the casserole, so you'll have to serve it from the pot—which is an appealingly homey way to serve it. If you bake it on a baking sheet, you can present it freestanding, but maneuvering a heavy stuffed pumpkin with a softened shell isn't so easy. However, since I love the way the unencumbered pumpkin looks in the center of the table, I've always taken my chances with the baked-on-a-sheet method, and so far, I've been lucky.
   2. Using a very sturdy knife—and caution—cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin (think Halloween Jack-o-Lantern). It's easiest to work your knife around the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle. You want to cut off enough of the top to make it easy for you to work inside the pumpkin. Clear away the seeds and strings from the cap and from inside the pumpkin. Season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, and put it on the baking sheet or in the pot.
   3. Toss the bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Season with pepper—you probably have enough salt from the bacon and cheese, but taste to be sure—and pack the mix into the pumpkin. The pumpkin should be well filled—you might have a little too much filling, or you might need to add to it. Stir the cream with the nutmeg and some salt and pepper and pour it into the pumpkin. Again, you might have too much or too little—you don't want the ingredients to swim in cream, but you do want them nicely moistened. (It's hard to go wrong here.)
   4. Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours—check after 90 minutes—or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbling and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. Because the pumpkin will have exuded liquid, I like to remove the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that the liquid can bake away and the top of the stuffing can brown a little.
   5. When the pumpkin is ready, carefully, very carefully—it's heavy, hot, and wobbly—bring it to the table or transfer it to a platter that you'll bring to the table.
2. Serving
   1. You have a choice—you can either spoon out portions of the filling, making sure to get a generous amount of pumpkin into the spoonful, or you can dig into the pumpkin with a big spoon, pull the pumpkin meat into the filling, and then mix everything up. I'm a fan of the pull-and-mix option. Served in hearty portions followed by a salad, the pumpkin is a perfect cold-weather main course; served in generous spoonfuls, it's just right alongside the Thanksgiving turkey.

Apple Sharlotka

Something yummy to do with the abundance of apples this time of year. And I use whatever apples I have on hand, homegrown, gifted or otherwise. Mostly, I just like saying ¨sharlotka¨. Good name for a cat.

I started with this recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Her MIL is Russian, so I guess this must be pretty authentic.  In the comments it becomes clear that it´s a popular dessert from Poland to the Ukraine.

Mine doesn´t come out so blonde and pretty.  It may be because I use brown sugar.  It may be because our oven has no temperature marks, so I´m guessing about the 350 degree thing.  Mine are always toasted to a dark brown.  But there´s no question that the results are tasty.  Good for breakfast, dessert, tea time, there´s no end to the possibilities.  Also delicious with a cinnamon powdered sugar glaze drizzled over the top.  It can also be made with pears instead of apples.

Keys to success - you do have to push the batter down into the apple pieces, it won´t sink by itself.  Don´t forget to run a knife around the sides of the springform before turning it over or you risk the bottom of the cake sticking to the paper.

From the link above:

Butter or nonstick spray, for greasing pan
6 large, tart apples, such as Granny Smiths
3 large eggs
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
Ground cinnamon, to finish
Powdered sugar, also to finish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper and the sides of the pan. Peel, halve and core your apples, then chop them into medium-sized chunks. (I cut each half into four “strips” then sliced them fairly thinly — about 1/4-inch — in the other direction.) Pile the cut apples directly in the prepared pan. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, using an electric mixer or whisk, beat eggs with sugar until thick and ribbons form on the surface of the beaten eggs. Beat in vanilla, then stir in flour with a spoon until just combined. The batter will be very thick.

Pour over apples in pan, using a spoon or spatula to spread the batter so that it covers all exposed apples. (Updated to clarify: Spread the batter and press it down into the apple pile. The top of the batter should end up level with the top of the apples.) Bake in preheated oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out free of batter. Cool in pan for 10 minutes on rack, then flip out onto another rack, peel off the parchment paper, and flip it back onto a serving platter. Dust lightly with ground cinnamon.

Preserving 2017

Once the veg/fruit starts coming, you can´t really keep up with it.  The question is how you preserve it for later.  A dehydrator and fruit press are on the list of capital investments still to be made.

The cucumbers were numerous.  I gave several to the neighbors/family and used them in gazpacho and salads.  Mostly, I made pickles.  I tried bread and butter pickles, refridgerator dills and lacto-fermented dills.  Unfortunately, the cukes went from white to yellow in the blink of an eye, and yellow cukes tend to be bitter.  So even pickled, I can taste that bitterness.  Still, I´m amazed that the salt brine will make pickles in a week or less.  I´ve got a big jar in the fridge, and wonder how long until they go soft.

I used the many, many zucchini/courgettes in tortillas, pisto, zucchini bread, lasagna, veggie puree for Breo and froze some shredded.  I have my doubts.

This year tried roasting the tomatoes instead of boiling for hours in on the stove.  I did put a glug of olive oil in the first coupe of batches, which means they´ll be kept in the fridge, as I´ve read water bath canning isn´t recommended with things containing oil.  A canner is on the list, too.

And I made ketchup, which is A.MAZ.ING.  Light years away from what you buy in the store.  In fact, it may be a little heavy on the cloves, as I was guestimating the weight of the tomatoes and using the recipe here.  I´ve got 3 more little pots in the freezer.  When those run out, I´ll make more using canned store tomatoes and see if there´s much of a difference.

No jams this year, since I still have several jars from last year.  Wondering just what to do with the apples, since the neighbor kindly gifted me with another few pounds.  Maybe pie filling. Got the bag of hedge mix in the freezer waiting for inspiration.

Apple galette with wild blackberries

So we survived the yearly August family visits.  Let´s just say I have thoughts about the whole extended family arrangement predicted for the post collapse future. Now, after a couple of days of rain and a sudden drop in temperatures, it feels like we are well and truly heading into fall. 

And I am pleased to offer this easy galette, made with home grown apples from the tree that´s now producing more, and more accessible apples that we had pruned last winter, along with blackberries from the nearby hedges.  No idea what the variety of apple actually is - blushed golden, not too sweet.  I remain unconvinced by the local ¨cooker¨ Reinetta.

Butter crust from Louis P. De Gouy´s The Pie Book, which I had in the freezer.  Galette recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  She´s my go to dessert source.  I did substitute half brown sugar for white, just because I like it more.  Also made a great zucchini bread (courgette) recipe from her site when we were overwhelmed.

Apple/berry filling couldn´t be simpler.  I did go ahead and use the peels and cores for a sugar syrup and basted the whole thing when it came out of the oven.  Perfect balance between not too dry and crumbly, but not soggy.  It is a bit of a faff turning every 15 minutes, but as our oven heats significantly more at the back than the front, just as well.

Hope everyone had a swell summer!

Chipirones en su Tinta / Baby squid in ink

 Link - we ate ours before I could get a picture

Something to change up the usual fish night offering.  Ink is sold in little frozen packets here, and is not really necessary since I don´t think there´s a distinct flavor change after you add it.  But it makes for a dramatic presentation.

Minced garlic to taste
1 leek chopped
1 medium tomato chopped
1 medium green pepper chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt and pepper
1 lb baby squids, cleaned and de-beaked.  Stuff the tentacles and fins into the cavity.

Heat a little olive oil in the pan, add the garlic for a moment then the vegetables, sauteeing until soft.  Add the white wine and allow to reduce 5 minutes.  Salt and pepper the squids lightly and add, lower the heat and simmer 20-25 minutes, covered.  Add the ink and stir to incorporate.  Serve with white rice.

Notes:  Tasty and simple.  I´d say that the stuffing needs a little something more, i.e. breadrcumbs and parsely or lemon or chives or something.  It would also probably be worth removing the squids at the end and puree the veggies and sauce for a more sophisticated presentation.

Mussels with Tomatoes and Pasta

This was really tasty and a great way to use up some of the cherry tomatoes. 

I cover the mussels in cold, salted water for a couple of hours before starting, discarding all broken ones and any that never close. 

Saute a handful of diced onion, a minced garlic clove in a little olive oil.  Add the clean, de-bearded mussels, a glug of white wine and a dash of black pepper. Cover and bring to the boil, then let steam with the heat off for a few minutes.  Let cool.

Strain the mussels, retaining the liquid.  In the same pan, saute some green or red pepper, perhaps some more onion/garlic and a handful of cherry tomatoes per person.  Add the liquid back in and simmer to reduce.  Separate the mussels from their shells.  Cook your pasta.  Just before al dente, add the strained pasta to the reduced sauce along with the mussels.  Shake/toss gently until warmed through and serve.  Don´t add salt until the very end after tasting, because I find the liquor from the mussels is quite salty enough.

¡Que aproveche!

Clafoutis

I bought a box of sweet cherries and made a clafoutis.   I used the Julia Childs recipe from here, since she knew her way around French cooking.

Turned out quite straightforward and tasty - a softer texture than I was expecting.  It´s a little like popover batter, and not too sweet.  I think maybe some toasted almonds on top would be a good addition.

Unfortunately, my only cherry pitter gave up halfway through.  So I stewed the rest of the cherries with their stones and am now in the market for a new pitter.  Life is too short to be doing it with a knife.

I should plant a sour cherry tree, as I like them better cooked than fresh.

ETA - Clearly this year, Bastille Day was anythng but happy, so I´ve changed the title of the post.  My thoughts and best wishes go out to the victims of the tragedy in Nice.

Fresh Fig Tart

I had never eaten figs.  When they appeared by the bushel full at the farmer´s market, it seemed time to remedy that.

While sweet and enticingly soft and juicy, I have to say they were relatively flavorless eaten fresh.  So, with most of a kilo to get through, I happened upon Rick Stein´s recipe.  I´ve seen some of Mr. Stein´s cooking and travel shows and he seems like such a delightfully jolly fellow, curious and enthusiastic about all things edible. I adapted his recipe for a lack of marscapone by substituting cream cheese with a couple of tablespoons of grated lemon zest and some homemade yogurt to fill it out.

I used Smitten Kitchen´s non-shrinking crust recipe, and I did it without so much as a food processor.  As you can see, the crust is quite overdone, but in my defense, the oven shut off at some point early in the blind- baking stage and from then on I was improvising.  Covering the crust with protective foil during final baking didn´t give results and it turns out the back of the oven is hotter than the front.  Live and learn.

V liked it well enough.  The lemon cream saved the dessert - again, even after baking, the figs themselves didn´t speak to me.  I tried some of the black variety the next week, but still wasn´t bowled over by their flavor.  So, now I have two jars of fig compote in the fridge and figs have dropped to the bottom of the fruit tree list.

Aproveche

¨Que aproveche¨ is what you say in Spain, instead of ¨Bon Apetit¨.

The local tomatos are finally appearing in the farmer´s market, so I did up a batch of roasted tomatoes with garlic. I am surprised at the number of tomatoes it takes to make sauce.  Mental note - plant many, many sauce tomatoes.  Hampered by not owning a food mill, the skins plucked right off and the rest was mashable. I was planning to water bath these, but there wasn´t really enough, so I froze half and ate the rest.  It was delicious.

The rest of the harvest so far includes:  fallen pears, crab apples, pickled onions and blackberries.  The pears rotted almost immediately, since they´d blown down from the very top of the pear tree.  Still undecided what to do with the crabapples as they seem small to be peeling and coring.  The blackberries are tasty, but smallish and seedy.  I was going to make jam, but finally put them in the freezer to decide later.

In latest news, the birds have gotten most of the elderberries.  And the elder with the most left to ripen got taken out by one of our dead apple trees when it fell over in a windstorm.  Instead of making elderberry syrup, we´re now faced with splitting and stacking a lot of applewood.  I´ll have to investgate smoking something - bacon anyone?

And, inspired by the tomatoes,  I planted some cilantro and sweet basil seeds in pots.  They´re coming up very, very slowly and may not make it before frost.  Fingers crossed for future salsa and pesto.

Happy Pi day

Pi Day (3.14)

Apple Galette.

Used a recipe from Jacques Pepin.  And the crust is a definite keeper.  I was pleased that after maybe 5 years without makng a pie crust, it all came together so easily.

I did use something new to me - manteca de vaca.  Manteca would usually mean lard, but in this case it´s cold, clarified butter.

V has been suffering from a cough and cold, so I used some honey infused with ginger and lemon I´ve been giving him in tea to drizzle the apples.  Reineta apples are the go-to cookers here, but I have to say, I find they go mushy, though the tartness is pretty good.  I also overcooked it, but there´s time to get used to the quirks of the gas oven.

Tastes pretty good.

Lacon con Grelos

The traditional Galician fare during Carnaval/Entroido is pork.  Chorizos, ham, pancetta, heads, ears, cheeks, trotters, tails, accompanied by tender new beet greens, boiled potatoes, drizzled with olive oil and washed down with local wine, it is a time of celebration and feasting before lent.

Now that we have a functioning kitchen, with a gas stove and a sink and everything, I thought I´d try lacon con grelos (beet greens).  I bought a small lacon (the front leg sans trotter) for 2, greens and potatoes at the Sunday market, and after consulting the meat vendor and my go-to source for Galician traditional cuisine (one of V´s aunts in Coruña) de salted it in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water 4 times.

The lacon went on the boil, and 2 hours later the chorizos were added.  I pre-boiled the greens to remove some of the bitterness, and then added the peeled potatoes half an hour before serving and the greens for the last 10 minutes.

Results - the lacon was still on the salty side for our taste.  Next time I´ll de-salt for 48 hours.  The potates were a tad overdone, they really should have been bigger.  But the results were reasonably authentic for a first try.

I´ll be making bubble and squeak a la gallega today with the leftover potatoes, greens and chorizo for lunch.

Happy Carnavales everyone!