Cabbage Excess?

If you happen to grow cabbage in your garden, you probably have an issue of huge cabbage heads and a lack of ideas of what to do with you cabbage. This happened to me in England, the cabbage from the garden were like basketballs. One lasted all week, and I had to find interesting thing to do.
This one I learned from Satoko, a Japanese woman I lived with.
She shredded the cabbage, added some salt, sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil (to cover) and a touch of rice vinegar.
Let it sit for a few hours, and you have an awesome, tasty salad. I love toasted sesame oil, that is perhaps why I love this so much.

I only eat fresh Coleslaw

I was a super picky eater as a kid. I only ate one thing at a time, washed my plate in between and then would have the next part of the meal. I didn't have dressing on salad until my freshman year of college. The first (and last time) I had a BLT was the summer I lived in NYC. That was also my first time eating tomatoes and lettuce on a sandwich. I stopped eating hamburgers about 15 years ago. Swore off all beef, and then for a brief time in college ate steak every chance I got for 10 months. There are a lot more examples of weird eating habits, like the time my roommates and I only ate canned soup for three months. We would go to the store and fill the cart up with Progresso and Campbell's soup. Now the thought of canned soup makes my stomach turn....
I am still a fussy eater. I don't eat meat, and sometimes indulge on Tuna and some other seafood. I don't eat much processed foods, and you would have to strap me down to get me to eat anything with MSG or hydrogenated oils in it.
To the point. I still carry my fear of preprepared salads like potato salad and coleslaw. Once I made them from scratch, I realized how good they could be. I'm not about to go out to the grocery store to buy some pre-made, but I will eat them if myself or someone has cooked them up within the last five hours and there is no bacon.

Coleslaw

12oz white cabbage
1 large carrot
1 onion peeled and chopped fine
3 tbsp fresh parsley
1/4 pint mayo
salt
pepper
paprika

I use the food processor to shred the carrot and cabbage. This is best 2-3 hours after serving.

Ginger Cake

I was going to post my banana bread recipe, but I'm not sure I am ready to release that to the public. Perhaps if someone has a need for it, but in my opinion it is Blue Ribbon stuff.
So instead, I will give you a ginger cake recipe, compliments of Nigel Slater. Nigel ruled my culinary world when I was living in England. He contributed to the Guardian magazine every Sunday, and he always had seasonal recipes. Which worked out wonderfully for me, since I was working magic cooking straight from our community's garden. I have a notebook of cutouts and most are his. This cake was yummy and helped secure my spot as Pennine's best cook. An honor I and my students of Hibernia took pride in. Mark, Claire and Chris and I spent many hours together working peacefully (most times) sometimes preforming miracles.


You will need::::
60 grams butter
125 g golden syrup
100 g plain flour
25 g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
100 g caster sugar (unrefined sugar works fine here too)
a pinch of salt
125 ml milk
1 egg beaten


Preheat the oven to 325*F
Thoroughly grease a 9 inch by 5 loaf tin.
Put the butter and golden syrup in a small sauce pan and melt stirring occasionally over a low heat. Remove .
Sift both flours, the soad and spices into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and salt, then add the milk and egg and mix until smooth. Gradually add the butter mixture stirring until mixed well.
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 50-55 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for five minutes.
You can make syrup for the cake by placing
125 g sugar, 125 ml water and 1 tbsp of finely grated ginger in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil and simmer in small sauce pan. Spoon the syrup over the hot cake and leave to cool.


ps. I know its in metric system. I'm protesting the Masons and their "we keep the metric system down" sign they have posted in their yard right now. Perhaps if someone can explain this to me I will post my Banana bread recipe :)

How to Sprout Beans

You Need::
1/4 cup of dry beans (lentils, soybeans, mung beans, black red beans...seeds)
Filtered water

Sort and rinse the beans. Transfer the beans to a bowl and cover them with 2 cups of water, and leave them to soak at room temp for 8 hours. Drain the beans into a colander and gently rinse them with cold water. Place the colander in a dark place, such as your kitchen cabinet. Repeat "the rinsing/leaving to drain/returning to a dark place" twice a day for 3-5 days until the beans have sprouted a 1 inch tail. Place these baby sprouts in indirect sunlight for several hours, to create chlorophyll and to turn the sprouted tails green before using.

Use your sprouts within 3 days.

DO NOT use potato or tomato seeds, they are poisonous.
Sometimes this might not work due to circumstances only the bean knows....so don't give up, and try it again.

Enjoy.

Oats, Ginger and Apples

I decided that the post by Pat was too huge for those who like quick digestable bits of information, so I broke it down into two parts. So here is his recipe for a way to spice up your traditional oatmeal.


It's getting be that time of the year where it's unbearable to get up in your frigid house. At the same time the apple harvest is just wrapping up so there's mountains of apples to make stuff out of. So here's the breakfast that gets me out of bed all winter, with some of those autumn apples to make it like dessert first thing in the morning. What you'll need: rolled oats, water, cinnamon, ginger, raisins, an apple, brown sugar (or maple syrup) For 1 serving: Pour 1 1/3 cups water in a small pot, add about 5 shakes of cinnamon (I get those big jars that cost like a buck, so you can go nuts with it) and turn the burner on high. While that's boiling up peel and mince half an inch of ginger (see below) and dump that in the cinnamony water. When the water is boiling add 2/3 cups rolled oats and turn the heat down to low. You're gonna have to turn the heat down before the water boils if you have an electric stove, because otherwise the oats will froth over, and if the heat's too high the oatmeal on the bottom will get burnt and your pot will be a pain to clean out. Once that's simmering you can go get dressed, since it'll take the oats 7-10 minutes to absorb the water. Come back a couple minutes before it's supposed to be done and dice a third of an apple. You can save the rest but it'll just get brown so I usually end up eating it. A couple minutes before the oatmeal is done (it'll get those little dimples on the surface, like rice) dump the apples and raisons in there. Too early and the apples will get mushy and the raisons will become little fireballs, too late and they won't have time to warm up. Anyhow, when all the water's been absorbed give it a stir to get everything mixed in and let it stand for a minute. Dump all of it into a bowl and pour some brown sugar on top, then let it stand for another minute to let it caramelize real pretty. If you live in New England and can get maple syrup cheap this is also a delish touch. Heck, throw some more cinnamon on there if you really want to put on a show. Now you've got a piping hot breakfast that's got plenty of fiber, is slightly spicy (to warm you up even more) and sweet and fruity. This is kind of the gourmet version; when fall ends and the only apples available are trucked in from the Northwest you can skip them and go for the budget version. It'll still get you a pimp hot breakfast for like 25 cents and five minutes prep. Just remember to get some water in your pot before the scrapings dry, it'll spare you dish agony when you get around to cleaning up.

Loco Coco's

I am pleased to annouce at the possibility that Loco Coco's in Kittery might start delivery service.

Roasted Acorn Squash

This meal is fantastic. I did it for myself and had it for two days.

1 acorn squash, cut in half and roast at 375*F for 50 minutes or until very tender
Once it is roasted you will need
1-2 tbsp of butter
1 med onion, sliced thin
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Melt the butter then add the onions. Cook the onions slowly until tender, add the garlic, coriander, and nutmeg and scoop the acorn squash into the mix. I then seperated it by mashing with my wooden spoon and I added a bit of water to make it easier to manage.

This goes great with brown rice (which you could start when you start the roasting of the acorn squash. Brown rice is 1:2 (rice:water) and cooks for about 40 minutes at a med-low heat)

This meal was one of those surprisingly awesome meals, where you are overjoyed with all the flavor since it is a simple recipe.

Enjoy.

Ode to Pat and ginger

So my friend Pat is great. He was the jumpstart to this online food project. He asked me for some recipes one day, and while I started going through my many cookbooks (I have about thirty) I decided to get to it and start blogging. Well, he is really great, and this post is completely composed by him, so you should send thanks his way .

Preparing fresh ginger root:

There are a lot of fresh ingredients that don't cost a whole lot but will make a world of difference in your cooking. Ginger is a tangy root that is available almost anywhere fresh produce is sold. Look for smooth skin and an even diameter to make preparation a cinch. "Antler horns" are cool looking but a pain to peel. A thumb of ginger (a piece about four inches long that looks like... well,) costs like 15 cents and is enough for four or five gingerrific meals, more if you're a spice-a-phobe. What follows is the easiest way to get this thumb-looking root into a form your can put in your food.

You'll get a taste for your level of ginger tolerance after a couple meals, but I generally find an inch long piece is enough for a four-serving meal. It's easiest to prepare ginger with a small, sharp, non-serrated knife, like a paring knife. Slice off the dried up end where it was broken off, then slice off half an inch or an inch, depending on how much you need. You can peel off the skin with a potato peeler or just knife it off.

Cut it in half lengthwise and put the flat part down. If the root is really thick you might have to cut it into thirds. Ginger is a fibrous root, so by cutting lengthwise you'll be cutting along the fibers. Cut the ginger as thinly as possible into spears, then slice the spears. This is where it's helpful to have a sharp knife, since you won't get caught up in the fibers but can cut through them cleanly. Basically you want to mince the ginger into little bits the size of minced garlic. If the bits are too big you'll get these chunks of ultra-zingy ginger in your food.

You can also grate ginger but I find that it turns into a pulpy mess and you always get down to a piece that's too small to grate without grating your fingertips, so I prefer just mincing it with a paring knife. Once you get the hang of it it takes like a minute. Throw some in some white rice or oatmeal to perk up an otherwise blah dish. I'll post some other recipes to utilize your new ginger-mincing skills in the upcoming days.

The fantastic Ginger dressing

Ever go to a Japanese restaurant and get the salad with the ginger dressing? Do you love that dressing? Well I found a recipe for it, and it is amazing. Something about it hits my tongue in a fantastic way....

Ginger Soy Vinaigrette

Mash together until a paste is formed:
1 peeled garlic clove
2 to 3 pinches of salt

Remove to a small food processor or blender. Add and puree:
1/4 c rice vinegar
1/4 c minced shallots (onions are okay too)
2 tbsp minched peeled fresh ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 teaspon toasted sesame oil
salt to taste
hot red pepper (or oil) to taste

With machine running, slowly pour through the feed tube and process until smooth (aka emulsify the dressing :)
1/2 cup peanut or vegetavle oil

Use right away or cover and refrigerate.

I love Cheese= My death

Cheese will be the death of me.
Boucheron, Cana de Cabra and Five year old aged gouda have me hostage.
Boucheron and Cana de Cabra are similar cheese from the same mountain, different countries. Cana de Cabra is the Spanish version of this goat cheese, and Boucheron is the French version. Both are great. The restaurant I work for, introduced me to both, and I will forever be hooked.

Veggie Barley Rice Soup

I made enough vegetable/barley/rice soup to last me all week.
I thought I was having a lot of people over for dinner, so I went nuts. Instead, it was me, a friend and that is it. We watched Troy, the worst movie ever, but so fun to dissect!

I chopped up:
2 onions, 2 garlic, a bunch of celery, 3 carrots, 2 zuchinni
I threw them in the pot with some oil, added water and some Better than Bouillon, a can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, parsley, a can of garbanzo beans, two handfuls of rice, and two handfuls of barley. I let it simmer until the rice & barley were cooked through, and then I had me some soup. For the week.

Vegan to boot. But I add a spoonful of Romano cheese in my bowl before I eat it. It makes the soup.

Lemon Artichoke Pesto???

If anyone has a great recipe for a lemon artichoke pesto, do tell! I bought some from the local pasta company, Terra Cotta, and it was devine. I guess I should just ask them, but perhaps someone that reads this might have their own.


This is another reason why it's good to live on the Seacoast.