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When I googled sauerkraut flavors I got sauerkraut flatulence … a sign from God? I think so.

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Posted by Kristin

At the farmer’s market last weekend, I tasted some raw cultured sauerkraut. The sauerkraut is made the traditional way by lacto-fermentation. In case you are wondering, lacto-fermentation happens when friendly bacteria turn the sugars and starches in the vegetable into lactic acid. The resulting product is preserved, develops a sour flavor and contains beneficial bacteria and added vitamins. And get this: most of the sauerkraut you can buy already made isn’t actually cultured—it’s just shredded cabbage that has been pickled in brine. So the stuff I’ve been eating all this time isn’t really sauerkraut. It’s cabbage pickles. The grocery store has been ripping me off for YEARS. I feel violated.

The farmer’s market vendor had several different flavors, which gave us the idea to make our own flavored kraut. I tried googling “sauerkraut flavors” for inspiration and this is what I got:

Needless to say, my HBO on demand doesn’t work right now and I can’t watch all of my new DVRed episodes of Big Love until I watch season 4 episode 6, but that’s not the point I was trying to make. And that point is: obviously, there is a lack of internet content on this particular subject (flavored sauerkraut, not the hopelessness that is Time Warner Cable … although it seems that lots of people want to know about sauerkraut flatulence). So we decided to wing it.

Taking our inspiration from the farmer’s market kraut, we decided to make traditional sauerkraut with caraway seeds, a lemon dill sauerkraut, kimchi and a spicy jalapeño sauerkraut—which Kelly lovingly labeled “Tex Ass.” Sweet isn’t it?

So off to the grocery store we went to collect our ingredients, including eight heads of cabbage. And thanks to our purchase of eight heads of cabbage, we have now been red flagged us as suspected bioterrorists. Well, maybe not, but you never know what you can get in trouble for in this day and age. When we came home, we got to work shredding cabbage and somewhere along the way I realized I had yet another head of cabbage in the refrigerator (who’s counting? that makes nine, y’all). So we threw it into the food processor. Even with the machine doing most of the manual work, it still took a lot of time to shred all that cabbage.

food processor with cabbage

The hardest working food processor in Austin.

And despite Buster’s best efforts to eat up all of the little pieces we dropped on the floor—because in his tiny chihuahua world, anything that falls onto the floor is most likely special and off limits, therefore he should eat it—when we finished shredding, there was cabbage everywhere.

And here’s a picture of the little angel for you to look at while we clean. Isn’t he precious? And chock full of fiber.

We threw the shredded pieces into my giant bowl from the restaurant supply.

bowl of cabbage

Even after adding sea salt and allowing the cabbage to shrink, it wouldn’t all fit in the bowl at once. There was a really good tip on the blog where we found our basic instructions—salt the cabbage until it tastes “pleasantly salty, like french fries.” Not everyone knows how much salt is enough salt for sauerkraut, but everybody knows what a french fry tastes like.

In a smaller bowl, we combined cabbage with flavoring agents and then stuffed each flavored batch into 1 quart canning jars.

The first bowl got the traditional treatment with a tablespoon or two of caraway seeds. We hit the second bowl with some fresh dill, lemon juice and lemon zest. The third bowl got Korean chili powder, green onions, shredded carrots, fresh garlic and ginger. Finally we mixed up our special Tex-Ass sauerkraut with some shredded carrots, green onions, cilantro, hot sauce, cumin, fresh jalapeno, lime juice and a generous pinch of sugar.

flavored sauerkraut in jars

We stuffed the jars and topped each one with a small narrow glass filled with water to press the cabbage down. It’s important that the cabbage stay submerged in juice as it’s fermenting. Cabbage that’s exposed to air is subject to spoiling.

Then we faced a problem… where the heck were we going to put all of these jars? Somewhere dark with a relatively cool and steady temperature. I emptied a cabinet in the hallway and we put them inside, draped with cheesecloth so dust wouldn’t get into the kraut.

Day 1

The cabbage is producing a definite odor. In fact, the odor is so definite, I was pretty sure we needed to get it out of the house before Shawn smelled it and put and end to our kitchen experiments. So we moved it to the garage into one of those giant coolers that is supposed to keep stuff cold while you’re camping for 7 days. Problem solved. It hadn’t even been 24 hours and the cabbage had already produced a significant amount of juice, and was even producing bubbles on its own. Sort of cool, sort of creepy.

Day 2

The smell is really strong. Good thing we put the jars outside. I was pleased to find that there wasn’t any mold floating on top of any of my jars of kraut. If you find mold, you’re supposed to remove it. The idea of nonchalantly removing mold from something I plan to eat later is sort of revolting. I checked the water levels of each jar making sure there was a good amount of brine on top. A few hadn’t produced enough to suit me, so I added a little salty water to them. From this point on, don’t add any more salty water. The water is going to evaporate some from the jars, but the salt will stay behind. So if you need to add more liquid, use fresh water only. I removed the glasses that were sitting on top, packed down the cabbage and replaced the glasses (after rinsing them and refilling them with fresh water). Then I put them back in the cooler.

Day 3

Everything is starting to smell more and more putrid pungent. Sorry y’all. I’m working on using more appetizing words in my posts.

So anyway, lots of smells going on in that cooler. Hopefully that means it’s working.

Day 4

Day 4 is a milestone. Once I tried to make sourdough starter. I cared for it lovingly for 3 days—stirring, feeding, talking to it softly. I kept it in a safe spot on top of my toaster oven. On day four, I decided to bake potatoes in that very toaster oven … at 400 degrees … for an hour. By the time I realized what happened it was too late. My precious little baby starter was dead. Cooked to a crisp. I never attempted another starter or anything else for that matter that requires careful tending and feeding. This is why I don’t grow plants—only dogs and cats—because plants can’t follow you around and go “Hey lady! I’m drying up! How about some water?”

You know if you are at all worried you will forget to check on your little kraut babies, you have got another think coming. Wait until you smell this. Forgetting to check on fermenting cabbage is like forgetting to feed your cat. Your cat will be up your ass chasing you all over the house as you drag yourself out of bed, yowling in your face up to the very moment that you serve his majesty’s breakfast. The sauerkraut is the same way. Every time you walk by, the smell will follow you … it doesn’t let you forget. So today, I added more fresh water to the jars to replace what had evaporated. And again, we wait.

Day 5

I don’t know what’s going on. The jars are practically bubbling over with what I hope is sauerkraut juice. And, maybe I’m just getting used to the smell, but it actually doesn’t smell all that bad to me anymore. Is that bad? Of course, it could smell like skunks and I would never know … because I can’t smell skunks. It’s my super power. Bear with me people! One more day and we will know how this story ends. And considering I have about 14 quarts of possibly skunky cabbage hanging out in my garage, I hope it ends well.

Then again having to actually eat 14 quarts of sauerkraut could be a disaster in itself. I’m probably not going to have many friends when this is all over.

Day 6

When I came home from work and got out of my car the whole garage reeked of sauerkraut. I opened the lid to the cooler to find that my little kraut babies were bubbling over even more. Our Tex Ass kraut was especially bubbly (that’s right … everything is bigger in Texas) one of them had what appeared to be mold on top. (Don’t worry y’all. The mold turned out to be an ugly green onion.) It kind of made me want to pass out so I demanded that Kelly come over to help me deal with it.

sauerkraut scum

After I let the garage air out it wasn’t so bad. I even worked up the nerve to taste one of the traditional ones. It was awesome. It tasted exactly the way I wanted it to taste. I boiled the lids to the jars (as a precaution … Shawn said I was being overcautious) and I screwed them on, storing them away in the fridge. Shawn wants me to mention that he was more than happy to provide me some space for the kraut in his beer fridge that I bought and that I also supply the electricity to. I would just like to take this moment to say, I am floored by his generosity.

kraut in the fridge

Anyway, I guess that’s about the end of flavored Saurkraut 101. Kelly is on the way over—I left the scummy jars for her to deal with. I’ll post an update later on how each of the flavors taste. We’re cooking some dogs to go with our kraut for dinner tonight.

*Update*

The sauerkraut was great with our hot dogs and beer brats. It was soured just enough and was still very crunchy, which we liked. We cooked some dogs and brats on the grill and then tossed them into a skillet with some Shiner Bock and caramelized onions. Then we served them on toasted buns with lots of kraut.

Later we cooked up some corned beef and made reubens with seedless rye, swiss cheese and kraut. They were pretty awesome.

The kimchi and traditional flavors were almost unanimously the favorites. We stirred some crushed, toasted sesame seeds and a little toasted sesame oil into the kimchi to give it some extra flavor (although, it would have been good without this addition).

The “TexAss” flavor was Shawn’s favorite (he is not a fan of caraway seeds or dill) and it was also the one that soured the least.

I would consider this batch of sauerkraut to be a big success and I would definitely make it again in smaller quantities.

Posted in budget recipes, gluten free, side dishes, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian | No Comments »

Healthy Summer Squash Gratin Recipe

Friday, July 31st, 2009

I am in love with squash. All kinds of squash. But especially the summer variety. It wasn’t that many years ago that I proclaimed that I could never be vegetarian because I don’t like vegetables. Obviously, that’s no longer the case, but for some reason squash was always different. My memaw used to boil it until it was soft, mash it up and melt cheese over the top. To me, this was comfort food at its finest.

Now, when summer rolls around, yellow squash and zucchini play second fiddle only to the homegrown tomato. Since it came into season this year, I have made it every way imaginable. I’ve made grilled squash, mashed squash, baked squash, two kinds of squash pasta, squash pizza and squash quiche. I’ve even eaten squash in a taco. I have tried every semi-healthy squash recipe I run across, mostly to distract myself from wanting to prepare it this way. And I’m telling you right now, I’m about to give in. Dear lord sweet baby jesus, please save me because I can’t stop thinking about all that cheese.

So in an attempt to further distract myself with another semi-healthy squash preparation, I give you this delicious summer squash gratin, inspired by 101 Cookbooks. The squash comes out light and herby and gets a little bit of crispiness and tanginess from a topping of whole wheat bread crumbs and feta cheese. It was so good, it almost made me forget about that other squash.

Summer Squash Gratin Recipe

1 1/2 lbs of summer squash (yellow squash, or zucchini or both)

1/2 lb of yukon gold potatoes

Herb Mix:

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1/4 cup minced fresh oregano

zest of one lemon

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

Topping:

2 slices 100% whole wheat bread

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt to taste

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Slice the squash into 1/6 inch rounds. Slice the potatoes into 1/8 inch rounds (a mandoline is helpful for these steps). If you can’t cut the potatoes that thin, saute the slices in some olive oil for a minute or two before tossing them with the squash. Since the squash cooks more quickly than the potatoes, the idea is to ensure that the potatoes get thoroughly cooked in the oven.

3. In a large bowl combine the ingredients for the herb mix. Add the squash and potatoes and toss well to ensure that the slices are well coated with oil.

4. Place the bread slices in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to create coarse crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a small bowl and use your fingers to combine them with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt.

5. Pour the mixture into an 8 x 8 glass casserole dish and top with the crumbled feta cheese and bread crumbs. Bake 50 minutes. The topping should be browned and there should be little to no liquid from the squash visible in the bottom of the pan.

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Posted in budget recipes, mediterranean, side dishes, vegetables, vegetarian | 2 Comments »

Keep it Simple Stupid: Tomato Paella

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

I’ve always been one of those people that has trouble keeping things simple. For special occasion meals I tend to go overboard, choosing recipes that have 25 hard-to-find ingredients and take several days to prepare. The dishes almost always come out great, but sometimes they feel contrived and I’m left too pooped to enjoy the fruits of my labor. But occasionally, I will run across a recipe like this Tomato Paella and I am reminded that sometimes the best dishes are the ones that take little time and allow a few good ingredients to shine through.

I’ve had this recipe stored away for months, waiting for the moment that I had a few extra homegrown tomatoes to use up. When that day finally came last week, I pulled it out and realized I didn’t have any saffron. I had been meaning to order some from here, but there was no way my tomatoes would last that long. So I skipped it, subbing some tumeric instead, and I didn’t miss it.

The only other change I made to the recipe was that I cut the rice in half, thinking that two cups of rice would be too much for just the two of us. In retrospect, I could have eaten the entire full recipe by myself, but it would have taken weeks for my waistline to forgive me.

Tomato Paella
Adapted from Mark Bittman. This recipe depends on good quality tomatoes, so use the best-tasting tomatoes you can find. I would not try making it with those pink, mealy off-season atrocities from the grocery store.

1 3/4 cups water

1 1/2 pounds good-tasting tomatoes, cored and sliced into thick wedges

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 of a medium onion, diced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon sweet smoked spanish paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric

1 cup short-grain rice, such as arborio

chopped parsley for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Toss tomato wedges with a pinch of salt and a generous grinding of pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and set aside.

3. Warm 1/8 cup of olive oil in a medium-sized oven-proof skillet. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the garlic, paprika, tumeric and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and cook two minutes more. Add the tomato paste and cook a minute more.

4. Add the rice to the skillet and cook, stirring until shiny and slightly toasted, a minute or two. Add the water and bring to a simmer as you arrange the tomato slices on top of the rice and drizzle the tomato juices over the pan.

5. Put the skillet into the preheated oven and bake 15 minutes. The tomato skins should be wrinkled and the rice should be browned and crispy around the edges. If you like crispy rice on the bottom, put the skillet over high heat for a few minutes to allow a crust to form. Garnish with the parsley and serve.

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Posted in budget recipes, main dishes, spanish, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Breakfast for Dinner

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

I’m not a huge fan of pancakes for breakfast. And before you start thinking I’m crazy, hear me out. It’s not that I don’t like pancakes, because I do. I just don’t like like the idea of eating a pile of plain pancakes made of white flour and doused with sugar syrup as a meal that is supposed to sustain me throughout the day. After I eat them I inevitably just want to lay down and go to sleep. And then, right on cue, a few hours later, I’m starving again. I tend to like them better at dinner because I’m planning to go to sleep shortly after anyway.

But I do like pancakes. They’re cheap, satisfying and quick. And while I’ve been known to whip them up from a boxed mix, I really prefer the ones made from scratch with buttermilk. Throw in a few blueberries or stir in a little pumpkin puree and I’m in like Flynn. And while you’re at it try replacing the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour. They’ll have more flavor, they’ll keep you full for longer and you won’t even notice a difference in texture. At least not in a bad way.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes
Based on this recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Martha Stewart’s Original Classics Cookbook. My version uses whole wheat pastry flour and extra blueberries.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs, beaten

3 cups buttermilk

1 pint blueberries, washed

2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for the skillet

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. In a separate bowl mix the buttermilk, eggs and butter.

2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix them just barely. You want to have small lumps. Lumpy batter = fluffy pancakes.

3. Heat a large flat skillet over medium low heat and brush it with a layer of butter. (Or if you’re lazy like me you can just grab the stick of butter and run it all over the hot skillet. It accomplishes the same thing without dirtying another utensil).

4. Ladle about 1/3 cup of batter onto the skillet. Repeat this to make as many pancakes as you can (this is why it’s good to use a LARGE skillet), keeping the pools of batter about an inch apart. Sprinkle each pancake with about 10 blueberries and wait until they start to bubble before flipping them.

5. Flip the pancakes. They should be golden brown. If they are too dark, reduce the heat some. Allow the bottom side to brown slightly and transfer them to a plate. If you are feeding people who are impatient you won’t have to worry about keeping them warm because they will disappear right before your eyes. But if you need to keep them warm you can put them on in a warm oven on a heat proof plate, or cover them with a clean dish towel.

6. Serve immediately with maple syrup or sprinkled with powdered sugar (or both).

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Posted in budget recipes, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Good news about the Economy and $75 a week

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

I don’t have to tell you that the economy sucks right now. Everybody knows that already. You can’t watch TV without hearing it, you can’t open a paper or a magazine without reading it and we talk constantly about who is going out of business or who has lost a job. And I don’t have to tell you that people have been cutting back and saving their money to prepare for the worst. It’s all a little extremely depressing and scary.

But, for me, there has been a bright side to all of this gloom and doom. In an effort to scale back our budgets and pad our savings accounts a little, I have put a limit of $75 a week on our grocery spending. According to the IRS, the national standard for food expenses in a two-person household is $528 a month. That’s about $132 a week. In contrast, some people claim that $62 a week is the poverty level for two people (I’m still not sure how that figure was determined and it seems a little high). In any case I’ve decided that $75 a week is a realistic amount for us and we are now two weeks into our $75 a week experiment. 

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking. Cutting back your food budget? That’s not good news. Hang in there while I explain. Cutting back would be difficult (and possibly detrimental to our health) if we had to sacrifice quality. So instead, I decided that I can continue to buy the quality ingredients I love if I swear off most prepared foods. The key here is to buy ingredients. And with that in mind, I began making cuts with some guidance from this list.

The good news in all of this mess is this changes how we eat for the better. Here’s why:

1. Foods made from scratch are generally healthier than prepared ones. They only include what you choose to put in them, and all of those things will have names you can pronounce.

2. Cooking from scratch does require some extra effort, but most of the prepared foods you can buy are far inferior to what can be made at home from scratch, so to me, they are well worth the extra effort (think homemade mayonnaise, homemade yogurt and fresh-baked bread).

3. Buying food with a limited budget also limits the amount of meat you can buy. You’ll get more food for your money when you spend the bulk of your budget on things that come from plants: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans. We should all be eating more of these anyway:

Fresh fruits and vegetables

This means fewer meals will be centered on meat and as a result you’ll likely consume more fiber and plant derived nutrients and fewer saturated fats. Doesn’t that sound great? Sure does! Sign me up!

So what does this mean for the blog?

Well, as I begin to learn how to make some of the prepared foods I normally buy at the grocery store, I’ll write about it so you can learn right along with me. I’ll also be working on a list of tips that will help you eat well on a limited budget. It will soon be located to the right under “Pages on De Nacho.” Stay tuned folks—good things are coming up!

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Posted in fruit, vegetables, vegetarian | No Comments »

Unsung hero? Maybe.

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Tyler Florence calls cauliflower “the unsung hero of the vegetable world.” I would have to say the phraseology “unsung hero” is pushing it. I do agree, however, that cauliflower doesn’t get the attention it deserves. You don’t just sit around and wish you had a big steaming bowl of cauliflower to snack on (maybe not unless it’s used as a vehicle for eating liquified cheese). And it’s not always the most appealing choice in the produce isle, especially when it’s surrounded by so many other pretty vegetables that don’t resemble a brain.

When I came home with a head of cauliflower last week, and Shawn declared, “I hate cauliflower,” (surprise surprise) I knew I was going to have to puree that sucker. So it became soup. And you know what? He ate it. He said it tasted sort of like potatoes. He loves potatoes. Maybe the idea of heroic cauliflower isn’t so far-fetched.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets
 
1/2 of a large onion, sliced
 
4 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dry)
 
1 bay leaf
 
3 Tablespoons butter
 
4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
 
1/3 cup half and half, cream or whole milk
 
salt and pepper to taste (white pepper if you have it)
 
fresh herbs for garnish (optional—I used dill)
 
1. Simmer cauliflower, onion, thyme, bay leaf and stock until the cauliflower is very tender (about 15 minutes).
 
2. Remove the bay leaf and thyme stems. Puree the soup with an immersion blender (or puree it carefully in a regular blender)
 
3. Reduce if necessary to get desired consistency. Add the cream and remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper to to taste. Garnish with fresh herbs.

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Posted in budget recipes, soup, vegetables, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Beans and greens tacos, with salsa verde and queso fresco

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

I love beans. I love all kinds of beans. And the great thing is, beans are pretty economical food. They’re cheap and filling with all their fiber and protein. Unfortunately I have developed a taste for more than your average 99 cent bag of supermarket pintos (although there will always be a special place in my heart for you little pintos). Once you’ve had heirloom beans, you will never be the same. And I’m actually not even that fond of beans out of a can anymore. Have you tasted the difference between canned garbanzo beans and the ones made from dry beans at home? It’s shocking. That’s why I bought a pressure cooker. I can have beans in like 30 minutes flat, which opens a whole new world of bean possibilities. Like cooking beans for dinner on weeknights!

This week I needed to use up a head of curly kale and I had a recipe on file from Amy Scattergood of the L.A. Times for Christmas lima beans tacos with wilted dandelion greens. Well, I had kale. And frankly, I had a rather traumatic experience with the only bunch of dandelion greens I have ever attempted to cook which I really don’t want to get into right now. So Christmas lima beans and kale tacos it would be. Sounds exciting doesn’t it? I know, it doesn’t, but trust me. These were really good. Shawn ate seven of them.

Now, about the beans: I don’t know exactly why they are called Christmas limas. Maybe it’s their speckled red and white coloring. Or maybe it has something to do with their meaty chestnut flavor. Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo says that if you think you don’t like lima beans, you owe it to yourself to give these a try. Needless to say, you can’t buy these beans just anywhere. You can order them from Rancho Gordo (if you do, be prepared to place an order to try out several varieties of their beans to justify the hefty shipping charge). You may also be able to find them at a well stocked grocery store like Whole Foods or at Central Market if you live here in Texas. I got mine at Central Market for $4.99 for a 12-oz bag. You could also try this application on a different variety of bean. Black beans, pinto beans, or borlotti/cranberry beans would also be good.

To get started, cook your beans. If you are using the Christmas limas, follow along with me. If you are using a different kind of bean and you have a favorite way of cooking them, that’s fine. If you are cooking the Christmas limas, all they really need for flavor is a generous cup of diced onion and a few cloves of garlic. Sweat the aromatics, add the beans and about three cups of water (or enough to cover) and cook 45 minutes or 15 minutes or so in the pressure cooker on the highest setting.

At this point add about a tablespoon and a half of kosher salt to the pot, add more water if needed to keep the beans covered and put the lid back on. There are all sorts of arguments about when to salt the beans. I don’t really think it matters. If you think that is blasphemy, do it your way. Bring the beans back to a simmer (or back up to pressure if you’re using the pressure cooker), put the lid on and cook for 45 minutes to an hour more or another 15 minutes on high in the pressure cooker.

In the meantime, wash your kale really well and wilt it in a pan with some garlic and olive oil. Add a small amount of water and a lid and cook just until the greens are tender. Add salt to taste.

To assemble each taco:
1. Place 2 corn tortillas per taco on a plate (or 1 flour tortilla per taco if you prefer) 
2. Fill each taco with about 1/3 cup of beans and some of the kale
3. Top each one with a little prepared salsa verde (I used Herdez in a small can)
4. Crumble some queso fresco on the top or another cheese of your choice. Goat cheese or feta maybe?
5. Squeeze some lime juice over the whole thing

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Posted in budget recipes, main dishes, mexican, vegetables, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Kale Chips

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Sounds a little strange, I know. But as I looked in my refrigerator and saw the massive pile of greens building up right before my very eyes, I knew something had to be done. The kale would have to be sacrificed as soon as possible. I had been thinking about trying this for a long time, but I thought I would save it for a time when I needed to eat some greens up pretty fast. After being sick for three days and not cooking anything, I thought now was as good a time as any since: A. My green vegetable quota had seriously suffered this week thanks to a diet of all things white and bland; and B. My Greenling delivery will be showing up on Monday instead of Tuesday because of the holidays, which means more food will be here before I know it. And I must say, if you ever have an urge to eat an entire head of kale in one sitting, this is a really good way to do it. You won’t even flinch, I promise

So this, my friends, is some sort of curly purplish kale. It’s exact scientific name seems to have slipped my memory. If it looks vaguely familiar to you, you’ve probably seen it before. It was probably a garnish on a catered tray of food and it probably got thrown away. Believe it or not though, you can eat this stuff and it’s actually pretty good.

So here is what you do. There are lots of recipes floating around for “kale chips” and the general idea is you put a light coating of oil on it. Then maybe you add a sprinkling of apple cider vinegar or soy sauce for flavor and a small pinch of salt (use less salt than you think, and you can probably omit the salt if you use soy sauce). Toss it all together and then lay it out on a single layer on a baking sheet (I had to do this in two batches). Bake it at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes, flipping it over halfway through. The key is to dry it out as much as possible without letting it turn too brown (it becomes bitter). It will become crispy and crumbly and highly addictive and you might eat all of it before anyone even knows what you’ve done.

These actually reminded me of another highly addictive snack: toasted and salted sheets of nori. I went the apple cider vinegar route when I made these, but I think next time I will use soy sauce and a little bit of sesame oil so that they will taste more like toasted nori.

Now if I could just figure out what to do with all those lemons.

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Posted in appetizers, budget recipes, vegetables, vegetarian | No Comments »

(Almost) Painless Vegetarian Tamales

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I made vegetarian tamales. Now if we were talking about your traditional meat-filled tamales I would say, “if you’re ever feeling like you’ve just had it too easy lately and you really want to punish yourself, keep reading because I’m going to tell you exactly how to do it.” These tamales, however, are not “filled” in the way that typical meat tamales are. Instead, the vegetable filling is stirred into the masa. Thus, they are much faster and easier to put together and you could probably knock out a few dozen of them in a couple of hours.

And I know what you’re probably thinking, who cares if they’re easy. Vegetarian tamales? That’s an oxymoron. Tamales are supposed to be soft, greasy, lard-laden little bundles of joy with a meaty surprise inside. This is true. However, I’ve done some research and it appears that the more heart-healthy variety has quite the following. If you don’t believe me, hang in there. The recipe for the venison tamales that I also made over the Thanksgiving holiday—the ones that took all day long and left me twitching in a useless heap on the couch for the remainder of the evening—is coming.

Vegetarian Tamales with Sweet Corn, Carrots, Hatch Green Chiles and Cheese

These tamales are made with a combination of olive oil and butter instead of the more traditional lard. You could use vegetable shortening and they would still be vegetarian, but vegetable shortening is bad for you and it tastes like nothing, so where’s the fun in that? Make sure to season the veggies well and use a flavorful vegetable stock. Offer these with all the fixin’s: salsa, sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce, chopped onions, jalapenos and cheese.

Makes about 30 tamales.

6 cups masa harina

2 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cayenne

4 cups flavorful, room temperature vegetable stock

3 tablespoons pureed chipotle peppers in adobo

1 cup olive oil

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 onion, 1/4 inch dice

2 carrots, 1/4 inch dice

1½ cups corn (fresh off the cob is best, but frozen is fine)

6 hatch green chilies, roasted, peeled and diced

8 oz grated cheese (cheddar, monterrey jack, queso quesadilla or a blend of the three)

1 package corn husks, soaked and rinsed

1. Caramelize the onion in a little oil or butter. Add the carrots and cook for several minutes. Add the chilies and the corn and cook until the mixture is fairly dry with no visible moisture. Set aside to cool.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the masa harina, seasonings, salt and baking powder. Stir in the stock, chipotle puree and two cups of water.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter on high speed until fluffy. Add the olive oil and continue to beat until combined. With the mixer on medium speed, slowly add large spoonfuls of the masa mixture. Then increase the speed and beat for several minutes until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. To test the readiness of the dough, drop a small spoonful into a glass of water. If it floats, it’s ready. If it doesn’t, keep beating.

4. With the mixer on low speed stir in the vegetables and the cheese.

5. Fill each husk with 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the masa. Roll the husk to enclose the filling and secure the ends with strips of corn husk if you like.

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Spicy Pine Nut Hummus

Friday, November 28th, 2008

My hummus-making has evolved a lot over the years. The first batch of hummus I ever made (I cleverly called it bean dip so that Shawn might eat it) was a pasty combination of canned chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and an assortment of spices I threw in haphazardly with hopes of overpowering that weird tahini flavor. Shortly after that, I developed a flavorful hummus that became my new obsession. It included roasted garlic, a whole jar of roasted red bell peppers, parsley, green olives, canned black olives and only a small amount of tahini. While that was all well and good and it was delicious, it was sort of expensive to make for a dip and it didn’t quite have the creaminess I was looking for. But my new favorite is this: spicy pine nut hummus. It gets some of its creaminess from the addition of pine nuts allowing me to eliminate some of the tahini from the recipe for a more (I think) balanced flavor. I also found a great tip for giving it some spice with a red pepper infused olive oil here. And best of all, Shawn now asks for my hummus and I don’t have to call it bean dip.

Spicy Pine Nut Hummus

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup dry garbanzo beans, cooked and drained (or 2 cups canned)

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1/4 cup tahini paste

1 clove garlic, sliced

1/4 cup boiling water

1 lemon, juiced

Salt to taste

1. In a small skilled warm the olive oil with the red pepper flakes to infuse the oil, being careful not to burn the flakes. Once the oil has begun to take on a rusty hue, remove from heat.

2. In the bowl of a food processor pulse the garbanzo beans, toasted pine nuts, tahini paste and garlic. With the machine running pour the hot water into the feeder tube until the hummus becomes smooth and creamy.

3. Add the lemon juice and salt and combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve with chips or use it as a sandwich or wrap filling.

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