The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Food 2.0 - Another Cookbook to Give Away!

DK Publishing sent me an advance copy of this book several weeks ago, and I've been reading and re-reading the recipes ever since.

I've got about 20 pages marked with mini post-it note things, and I think I put off writing about it because I couldn't narrow down the recipes to one or two to focus on.

The official background of the book is here, on the DK Publishing website.  To be honest, I had vaguely heard of Charlie Ayers, but didn't know anything about him.  Turns out he cooked for The Greatful Dead before he was hired to feed the growing number of Google employees. 

I know now that food-wise, we'd get along pretty well.  His emphasis is on locally produced, organic ingredients and lively, intense flavors from a wide variety of cuisines.

The one and only recipe that I was actually puzzled by was his recipe for fish tacos.  He calls for fish sticks.    Now, I have used fish sticks in fish tacos, but it just seemed really odd, in a book espousing the virtues of local, fresh foods, that rather than suggesting some possible kinds of fish to use, depending on what part of the country you're in, he suggests fish sticks.  Maybe it's because not everyone has access to fresh caught local fish...but still. 

I've decided, since I couldn't narrow the recipes down, I figure over the next week, while the giveaway is running, I'll try out a variety of recipes and post about them, so you can sort of peek at the food before entering the contest, if you want.

Oh - and I should also mention - in addition to a copy of the book (hardcover and in color, not a paperback advance copy in black and white), the publisher is also giving the winner a handy dandy lunch bag, so you can tote your healthy, locally grown lunch with you to work every day.

So, to get things started, and to give you an idea of the sort of thing Food 2.0 has to offer, I'll be posting (separately) the recipe for "Google Hot Sauce."  It's got heat, and layers and layers of flavor.  It packs a punch, but does so with style.

In the meantime, to enter this giveaway, here are the rules:

First, to enter, I'd like to hear from you in the comments section of THIS post, do you shop at farm stands or farmers markets on a regular basis?  What's available in your part of the world?

Second, the contest will end in one week - Wednesday, May 28th, at midnight, eastern standard time.  Any entries posted after that time - or anywhere other than in the comments section of THIS post - will not be considered.

Third, this will be a random drawing - I'll have the old faithful Random Integer thingy pick the lucky winner.

Any questions?  Okay, then - let the contest begin!  Oh - and I'll be posting the "Google Hot Sauce" in a bit later this evening.

Okra and Tempeh, Indian Style

I was reading through all the Tuesdays With Dorie blogs these last several days, and I found a recipe on one that sounded perfect for dinner. 

It's Madhur Jaffrey's Sweet and Sour Okra, and it was posted by Shirlie of Stop and Smell the Basil (which, by the way, is good advice).

Anyway, it sounded good, I love Indian food, and, amazingly, I happened to have a package of okra in the freezer.  It was meant to be.

To get the recipe, please click on the link for it above. 

I added a package of tempeh to the recipe, because I didn't have the full amount of okra the recipe called for, but I did have a package of tempeh in the freezer, too, and I figured it would work nicely.

Tempeh, by the way, is fermented, cooked soybeans combined with the Rhizopus mold to form a whitish, chewy cake.  You can use it as a meat substitute if you wish - I've used it for tacos or fajitas, for example - or you can slice it up and fry it in some oil and make french fries out of it.  My kids like it that way.

Anyway, in addition to the okra and the tempeh, the recipe is full of plenty of intense flavor, including garlic, red pepper flakes, coriander and cumin, and turmeric, which mainly adds color, and has a faintly metalic taste (at least to me), and lemon juice. 

The dish came together really quickly, and while I was getting that ready, I cooked up some rice to serve with the okra/tempeh mixture.

Here's a small bowl of the final product:

I halved the amount of red pepper flakes called for, only because sometimes the kids don't like the heat.  Next time, I'll use the full amount.

Bill and I loved it.  The okra and the tempeh soaked in all the flavor of the spices, and the "sour" of the lemon juice was not overpowering.  It had a nice balance of warmth and faint tartness. 

Julia liked it, though she didn't eat a lot of it and mostly just ate her rice.

Alex...well, Alex took one look and didn't think he was going to like it.  The thing is, he does this with a lot of new things now, and once he tries them, he doesn't always dislike them.  So the rule is, he has to TRY it.  Just one piece, and if he doesn't like it, okay.  Just eat the rest of the food on the plate.

But he really, really didn't want to try it.  And we really, really (nicely) told him it wasn't going to hurt him, and he really really didn't know if he didn't like it because he'd never had it (okra) before.

So we found the smallest piece of okra on his plate, checked it to make sure no red pepper bits were hiding on it anywhere, and told him to just try it.

And, finally, he did. 

First Harvest, Two Ways

All of our gardens this year seem, at this point, to be more lush and productive than they were at this time last year.  Maybe it's the weather.  Maybe it's the super awesome compost we put down.  Maybe my husband's green thumb grew THREE SIZES that day.  I don't know.  But we've got a lot of green stuff out there.

We've been picking asparagus for several weeks now, and here and there a leaf of something, but yesterday, we actually harvested some things.  In a collander (so you know we mean business).

Here's the take:

Four pak choi, two more asparagus, and about 6 broccoli rabe plants.  Part of the reason we pulled these (except the asparagus) was because they had grown so tall they were blocking light from some smaller plants behind them.  The broccoli rabe can really go a bit longer, but, again, they were blocking light, and I was hungry.

My initial plan was to cook all the greens together, probably in some kind of pasta dish.  But something in me resisted that plan and so I figured, okay, I'll make two dishes.  I thought it would be fun to make these two dishes kind of similar, but with different ethnic influences.

No real recipe - I didn't measure things - but here's what I did:

Spaghetti with Broccoli Rabe and Asparagus

I poured some olive oil in a pan, added two crushed, sliced cloves of garlic, and about two tablespoons of tomato paste.

To that I added a good slug of Blueberry Wine (yes, blueberry) from Cellardoor Vineyard in Lincolnville, ME (not far from Camden).  Why Blueberry Wine?  The bottle was already uncorked.  And it's red.

I whisked all that together and let it simmer for a bit, and sprinkled some oregano in there, too.  While all that was going on, I also had a big pot of water on the stove, coming to a boil, for the spaghetti.

I rinsed the rabe (and trimmed off the roots) and the asparagus...

I also thawed some shrimp and sliced them in half, lengthwise.

Once the spaghetti was cooking, I sliced the rabe, broke the asparagus into pieces, and added them to the tomato paste and garlic mixture.  When that had cooked down, I added the shrimp pieces, and then, when the spaghetti was cooked, I combined the spaghetti with the sauce/shrimp/greens mixture and served.

A little freshly grated parmesan on top, and my kids were both quite happy to eat this for dinner.

While I was doing all that, I was also concocting this:

Thai Style Rice Noodles with Baby Pac Choi

 

First up, I trimmed the roots from the pak choi leaves.

And then I rinsed the dirt off...

And sliced the leaves cross-wise, about an inch wide, and set them aside while I assembled some other ingredients...

And they are:  ban pho (rice noodles about half an ince wide), zest and eventually juice of one lime, 3 dried thai chilis (sliced later), sliced fresh ginger, two cloves of garlic, and some shrimp. 

I also had on hand some fish sauce (nuoc mam) and soy sauce.  I think that was everything.

I immersed the noodles in a large bowl of boiling water to soak for about ten minutes.

Once the spaghetti had been added to the sauce in the first recipe, I had my power burner free and set the wok above that.  I poured some vegetable oil in the wok and heated it until it started to smoke.

To that I added the garlic and ginger, sauteed them briefly, then added the chopped chilis, and the lime zest, and the fish and soy sauces.  I'd say to taste, but it was more to see and to smell.

Next in went the shrimp, and on top of that, the sliced pak choi, and the lime juice.

After the pak choi was wilted, I drained the rice noodles and added them into the wok and tossed the mixture together. 

Because of the heat from the thai chilis, Bill and I ate this and didn't give any to the kids.

Both dishes were good, though there is certainly room for improvement.  But for a quick, impromptu pair of noodle and fresh greens dishes, they were pretty tasty.

I love spring.

   

Herb Crust Pizza - One Crust, Many Toppings

I made a bunch of pizzas last night.  Just for fun, I added some dried herbs to the dough. 

Here's what I used for the dough:

5 tsp dried yeast, dissolved in

4 cups warm water in the bowl of my 6-quart stand mixer.

After the yeast softened and started to bubble, I added

10 cups all-purpose flour

5 tsp salt

1 heaping tsp each dried oregano, dried thyme, and dried basil

Mix at second-slowest speed for about 5 minutes.

(If the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add more flower, about a quarter cup at a time, til the dough comes away from the sides.)

Turn dough onto a lightly flowered surface and knead the dough into a ball.  Flatten slightly, and cut into 8 pieces.  Pour some olive oil into a large bowl.  Shape 8 pieces of dough into balls and place in bowl of oil, turning each ball to coat with the oil.  Pour a little more olive oil over them - you want them to be lightly covered with the oil.  Let sit for half an hour or so in the oil.

While the dough rests in the oil, preheat the oven and prepare the toppings.

Preheat the oven to between 450-500 degrees F. 

Toppings are entirely up to you. 

Here's what I did with mine.

Well, first of all, before I'd even made the dough, I started making a sauce, because I didn't have any canned in the pantry.  I used two small containers of roasted tomatoes from last summer and a 28 oz can of plum tomatoes and their juice.  I also used about half a cup of chianti (what was left in the bottle) and about a tablespoon of fresh oregano I'd frozen in olive oil last summer.  I'd also put in about 8 smashed cloves of garlic.  And some salt and pepper.  And I let that cook down for a while - til I'd made the dough.  Then I put the sauce mixture through a food mill and then back on the stove for a little while longer.  I skimmed some excess olive oil off the top and tasted it - just needed a bit more salt.

Alex and Julia each made their own pizza.

Alex's - as always - some sauce, just a little cheese and an even distribution of pepperoni.

For Julia, I'd sauteed some mushrooms and some minced shallots...

When she made her pizza, she spread out a generous layer of sauce...all of her alotment of cheese plus the cheese Alex didn't use, and poured her bowl of mushrooms right on the center of the pizza.  She topped the mushrooms with a bit of Alex's leftover sauce, and then ate the restspooned the rest of it into her mouth.

 

After the kids had made their pizzas, they left, and I got to play.

I'd bought a pound of fresh mozzarella, and I tore that apart while I was cooking the sauce...

I minced half a shallot and sauteed that with a big handful of baby arugula leaves...

...and then I stirred in about a quarter cup of pureed basil and olive oil (from last summer) that had been in the freezer.  And then I stirred in the last of a container of ricotta cheese - maybe 3/4 of a cup or so.  And then I was happy.

Next pizza - half of the arugula/basil/ricotta mixture topped with torn mozzarella.

 

And then...sauce, a whole lot of shredded (pre-packaged) mozzarella, and the rest of the mushrooms.

And then...sauce, a lot of shredded (pre-packaged) mozzarella, and plenty of pepperoni.

And then the other half of the arugula/basil/ricotta mixture, a little parmesan, and a generous sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

Last two...

First - simple one - just sauce and both the shredded (pre-packaged) AND the fresh mozzarellas.

And finally - my favorite of the bunch - pre-packaged mozzarella, then the last of the fresh mozzarella, a tablespoon of minced shallots, and a little can of smoked oysters.

   

Of course, 8 pizzas was far more than we needed for dinner last night, and that's the whole point of making that many.  Lunch the next day.  And a late night snack the day after that.  And lunches for everyone when Monday rolls back around.

So go - make some pizza.  Be creative.  Have fun!

Broccoli Rabe - Sauteed in Olive Oil with Pancetta and Garlic

Well, the post title pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this little recipe.

I figured I'd post this today to celebrate the fact that we have broccoli rabe coming up in the garden as of yesterday.  Yay!

I love the slight bitterness of broccoli rabe.  Food can't, and shouldn't, always be sweet or salty.  The bitterness creates a nice balance of flavors on the plate.  I like to serve it alongside strong-flavored dishes like beef or lamb...or salmon...or coq au vin.  Okay, I like it with anything. 

And here's all I do.

First, get a bunch or two of broccoli rabe from the grocery store, or harvest all you can from your garden (if you're growing it.  if you have a garden.)  Rinse it well, cut off about 2 inches from the stem end (if they're the big bunches from the store) and then chop the rest of the rabe into about 3" lengths, more or less.  Set that aside.

Dice up some pancetta

(or bacon, if you can't get pancetta...I've also used prosciutto.  You could use ham, too, probably.  Something porky and salty, basically.) and put it a hot pan,

stirring occasionally, until it renders its fat and gets darker and crispy.  Remove the pancetta and add a bit of olive oil and some peeled, crushed (but no sliced or minced) garlic

to the pan, stir it around, and leave the heat on low to medium low.  You want the fat and oil to absorb some of the garlic flavor.  (I also like to use roasted garlic sometimes for a sweeter garlic flavor.)

After the garlic has started to turn golden, add in your broccoli rabe (you can remove the garlic first, if you wish),

turn the heat up to medium, and put a lid on the pan to trap the heat and wilt the rabe.  You may need to move the rabe around a bit so the bottom layer doesn't stick to the pan.

I take the lid off the pan once the wilting starts, and I try not to cook the rabe too far past that point, so the green color doesn't start to go gray. 

I also like to squeeze some lemon juice over it.

To serve, I just pass around a block of parmesan and a grater so people can add cheese to it if they'd like.  You can also add the garlic and pancetta back in if you'd like. 

Pretty easy, right? 

Two Easy Bean Dip Recipes

Didn't feel like putting much effort into dinner last night. 

So I made some baked chips out of leftover soft tortillas...and some crisp cheesy garlic toasts out of a leftover half loaf of ciabatta...cooked some shrimp...some edamame...put out the leftover small blocks of various cheeses in the fridge...crackers...smoked oysters...cucumbers...and these two bean dips.

There was something for everyone, and it was very peaceful to have a meal where no one complained about not having anything to eat.

Why two bean dips?  Because I couldn't decide if I wanted canneloni beans or black beans.  So I used both.  But separately.  With different flavors.

First up, the canneloni beans.  I used a 15.5 oz can and rinsed the beans well, drained them well, and put them in the food processor.  I added some dried rosemary...salt and pepper...olive oil...and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

That seemed like a good start, so I put the lid on and pulsed a bunch of times until I had a slightly lumpy paste.  I tasted it, decided it needed a bit more rosemary and of course! some garlic.  (I had garlic warming in a bath of olive oil and butter for the aforementioned garlic/cheese bread, so I just took about a clove's worth of the garlic from the pot and added it to the bean puree.) 

Pulsed this mixture a couple more times, and poured it in one half of a crystal two-sectioned bowl perfect for the occasion.

Next up, the black beans.  Rinsed and drained them and into the (also rinsed) food processor they went.  To start off, I added some olive oil...lime juice...salt and pepper...ground cumin...and ground coriander.  Oh, yes, and half a shallot.

 

Pulsed everything until nearly smooth, then tasted it.  It needed more of the cumin and coriander, so I added a bit of them, and a bit more salt.  Then into the bowl it went.

Ta-da!  Pretty simple, no?

I didn't measure anything, so I can't tell you how much of anything to put in.  I would just say - start small.  You can always add more - you can't remove it once it's in there.

And don't feel obligated to do what I did.  My point, really - not that I had planned to have one - is that canned beans are really handy things to have on hand - a few additions and a whirl or two in a food processor and you have instant yumminess. 

Corned Beef Project: Day 9 - The Meal

Was it worth it?  Definitely.  I'll say that right off the bat. 

First off on Friday, I took a look at the packaged, pre-brined corned beef that I picked up for comparison purposes.  And then I looked up at the clock and realized I needed to get a move on.

"Simmer approximately 50 minutes per pound...." Um...okay, this brisket was 4.74 lbs, so that means...um...about 4 hours.  Okay, we'll put that one in first.  I cut open the package and took a look at the contents.

Very pink, and rather fatty on that side, huh?  Into the pot it went

covered with water, lid on, burner on high to bring it to a boil, and then down to a simmer.

Once I'd got that started, I took a look at the briskets I'd brined.

Not as bright pink as the other one, but that's okay.  They're not gray, at least.

Time to check in with the magazine article....

Remove brisket from brine.  Rinse with cold running water.  (Can be made 2 days ahead.  Wrap corned beef in plastic, cover with foil, and refrigerate.)

I just covered them with plastic wrap and put them back in the fridge, since I'd be cooking them in a few hours.

Time to get everything else ready.

You'll need the following:

4 bay leaves

1 T coriander seeds

2 whole allspice

1 dried chile de arbol, broken in half (I used a dried Thai bird chile - we have tons of them.)

cheesecloth (we have some, somewhere.  I used a plain piece of muslin instead.)

1  12-oz bottle Guinness stout or other other stout or porter (I used a porter my husband made.  And I used 2  8-oz bottles, so a pint instead of 3/4 of a pint.)

12 baby turnips, trimmed, or 3 medium turnips or rutabagas, peeled, quartered (no baby turnips to be found.  I bought the smallest I could find and halved them.  I used 8.)

8 unpeeled medium white-skinned or red-skinned potatoes (about 3 lbs)

6 medium carrots, peeled (I cut them in half as well)

2 medium parsnips, peeled, cut into 2-inch lengths (I used 4.  I like parsnips.)

4 medium onions, peeled, halved through root ends

1  2-lb head of cabbage, quartered (For some reason, I doubled the amount of cabbage.  Not sure what I was thinking at the time.  Probably wasn't thinking at all.)

And here's what you do:

Place corned beef in very large wide pot. 

Add stout (or porter)

and enough water to cover by 1 inch.

   

Wrap cheesecloth around bay leaves, coriander seeds, allspice, and shile, enclosing completely, and tie with kitchen string to secure.  Add spice bag to pot with beef;

bring to boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until beef is tender, about 2  1/4 hours.  Transfer beef to large baking sheet.

Okay - here's a picture of the pre-packaged corned beef when it came out of the pot...

And here's a picture of the ones I brined and cooked according to Bruce Aidell's recipes in Bon Appetit:

I covered both pans with foil and put them in a 200 degree oven to keep them warm.

Add turnips and all remaining vegetables to liquid in pot;

bring to boil.  Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until all vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.  Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to baking sheet with beef.  Return beef to pot and rewarm 5 minutes.  (I didn't need to rewarm the beef, as it was already staying warm in the oven.)  Discard spice bag.

While the vegetables were cooking, I put out a few things for people to nosh on when they arrived.

Here we have an assortment of Carr's crackers, a piece of smoked Sockeye salmon, a wedge of Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, and a block of aged Irish cheddar. 

Bill also bought oysters - 2 dozen - but I was too busy chatting and then slurping down the oysters once he'd shucked them to take any pictures.  Sorry.

Cut beef against grain into 1/4-inch thick slices.  Arrange beef and vegetables on platter.  Serve with Horseradish Cream and Guinness Mustard.

Starting with the potato at twelve o'clock and going clockwise, we've got some of the cabbage, carrots, a half of a turnip, half an onion, the Guinness mustard, the corned beef (the one I brined), Horseradish cream, and parsnips.

People sampled both versions of the corned beef and based on verbal feedback and evidence when the table was cleared, everyone preferred the home-brined corned beef. 

 

It has a distinctive, more complex, spicier flavor than the pre-packaged one.  It was just more interesting to eat.  I'll definitely make this again.

To recap, here's a shot of everything I'd made for this meal:

Brining the Briskets

Irish Whiskey Soda Bread

Royal Hibernian Brown Loaf

Horseradish Cream, Guinness Mustard

Lemon Sponge Pie with Chocolate Pastry Crust

I heartily recommend making this corned beef some time.  Sure, it's too late to make it for this year's St. Patrick Day dinner, but so what?  It'll taste good any day of the week.

And the leftover beef (and you should plan on making enough so that you DO have leftovers) will be nice in sandwich form,

or, my family's favorite - as corned beef hash.

Come back later for that one!

My New Favorite Food

FRESH baby corn. 

I'd never seen it in a local grocery store before, but the Stop & Shop that I go to (Route 2 in Warwick, in case you're keeping track or stalking) is in the middle of a big reorganization/reconstruction project, and it seems like they're also increasing the variety of produce and products they carry.  So a few weeks ago I was wandering around in the produce dept, heading for the avocados, and there they were.  Fresh baby corn.  Fresh.  As in, not in a can.  Actually they had a whole section of baby vegetables.  Baby zucchini.  Baby string beans.  And so on.  But none of that interested me - just the baby corn. 

I bought some, and Bill used it in a spicy Thai-inspired noodle dish that he made with some frozen cubes of red curry paste he made at the end of last summer.  He used tofu, maybe red bell pepper (I can't remember) and the baby corn, along with the noodles and the red curry paste and coconut milk and who knows what else.  Kafir lime leaves.  Cilantro.  And sliced cucumber all around the edges.  I should have taken a picture - it looked beautiful - but I didn't.  So he'll have to make it again.

But the thing I'm getting at is that in this very spicy and multi-flavored dish, you could TASTE the corn-ness of these baby corn.  They didn't taste like canned baby corn - that is to say, they didn't taste like CAN.  No, they - oddly enough - tasted like what they were.  Like corn.   Fancy that!

So of course, I bought some again the next week.  How good would it be if I just steamed the baby corn and melted a little butter on them and sprinkled them with salt and pepper?  Summer in March!  So that's what I did, and you know what?  THEY TASTED LIKE CORN! 

I realize this