Fresh Ginger

Crunchy, creamy, tangy, fresh, spicy. That was my lunch. Oh, and deeply satisfying, as well as fat free. How can one have all of the above you ask? Aloo Chaat Masala bowl. Aloo means potato. I can still taste the chaat masala (that is what they called it) I had about 4 weeks ago at the local Indian restaurant. I have been waiting to duplicated it fully ever since. Theirs came with dosa, which I have yet to perfectly duplicate, so today, mine was without a dosa (a rice and lentil tangy fermented flatbread) but with a bowl instead. Super easy to assemble and fast. You probably have the majority of the ingredients on hand.

Aloo Chaat Masala for two

Chickpeas, one can rinsed and drained
Potato - one medium baker - cooked in the microwave, roughly diced
White onion (whites are less sharp and better for raw eating I think - you could use sweet if you have one on hand) finely chopped - really 1/4 of the onion will be plenty
Cilantro - a few stalks chopped
Gram Masala spice mix (Penzeys has some if you don’t have an Asian or Indian store around - or you can Google it and make your own up) or chaat masala mix - this has green mango powder called Amchur in it, it adds a great tang and sourness to a dish, watch for asafetida as it is often cut with a starch like wheat flour.
Raita - Indian yogurt equivalent of Mid Eastern Tatziki
Raita can be made many ways, but this is what I usually put in it :plain yogurt, shredded (the smallest holes) cucumber (max 1/4 of a cucumber) and a bit of carrot - squeezed dry so the liquid is gone, 1 minced green onion, bit of chopped cilantro, salt and nigella seeds (onion seeds - totally optional), maybe some cracked pepper, sometimes a bit of potato mashed in to thicken it if my yogurt is not thick and there is not time to drain/strain it and a dash of lemon or lime juice.
Now the raita might sound like a bit of work, but it is not. Armed with a grater, it took me 3 minutes max to grate, chop, throw it in a bowl and stir. While I made the raita and chopped the onion, my potato was in the microwave “baking”.

To assemble: pile a bit of the potatoes, a bit of the chickpeas, a bit of the raw onion and a bit of the cilantro in a bowl. Place a heaping spoon of raita on top, sprinkle generously with gram masala, depending on how much heat you like, add salt to taste. Stir or not and dig in.

It took me a long time to enjoy raw onion. As long as it is fresh and not overpowering, it really adds a nice spicy crunch. I used to hate that crunch as a kid and would pick the raw onion out of my potato salads. I guess the chaat masala bowl is a bit like a potato salad if it is all mixed up. A tasty one. I will have to add that to the potato salad idea list.

Adding the brown masala spice doesn’t do a lot for the sexiness of the dish for photo taking, but it sure tastes great!
i’m out

Ah morel mushrooms….

It is spring here in Michigan. We had a really long winter and once winter leaves and the lilacs are about to bloom, it is my favorite time of year - wild morel mushroom hunting season. Yes, you hunt morels, you don’t find them. You stalk them, creep up on them, stop and stare, pause and pounce on morels, leaving the root behind for next year’s spore action.

I mentioned it is spring, but Mother Nature has been confusing lately and giving us a 75F day and then the next week is below freezing at night. She has confused the morels too. Normally I wouldn’t expect to start hunting for another week or two and I actually have time off planned to go visit the farm/friends and fam up in Leelanau at the end of May, but when I was raking the lawn this week, I almost raked a cluster of morels.

In my yard, yes. Oh bleaders, I did the mushroom dance immediately (one must do the mushroom dance when you find your first mushroom). I think my BF was a bit surprised at my reaction. It is the happiest day of spring when you find your favorite mushroom anywhere, much less in your lawn. I have had a lot of trees (that were dying) removed from my backyard over the last 5 years and have lots of woody mass in the backyard still. Every year when I wash any morels I have found, I carefully save the rinse water and pour it out in the backyard along the fence, hoping the spores will cultivate and that the mushroom gods will smile upon me again.

It’s working. I found my first morel in my yard 3 years ago when I was rototilling the garden plot. Every year they have been in a totally different location. Last year I found 8. This year, I found 20 30! A  1/2 pound.  I am cooking them up tonight in a most cherished appetizer. Unless you have mushrooms coming out of your ears, then you don’t find very many and to me, they are best eaten alone, with just a few accompaniments.

I prefer them two ways: one way coats them in a light dusting of flour first, the second is cooked the same way, no dusting. Usually I have some wild leeks to go along with it and often find morels and leeks side by side in the forest. However, my backyard is lacking in wild leeks, for now. Often when hunting morels you will find a wild stalk of asparagus and we always slice that up and toss it in too. I found three spindly spears of asparagus in our newly established asparagus patch at the back of the garden. So, the appetizer will be as follows:

Fresh Morels, sliced in half (rinse and inspect for bugs first), lightly dusted in flour of your choice. A stalk of asparagus, sliced thinly like a green onion. Butter - no olive oil for this one. Salt, pepper and thyme - fresh from the herb pot. One clove of garlic, or use a wild leek if you have one, minced - the leek sliced thin.

Melt the butter, toss in your dusted morels and when they are about halfway cooked through, add the rest of the ingredients. Let the morel get a bit crispy - it locks the flavor in behind the flour coating. Eat immediately.

Or the other way, melt the butter, toss in your halved morels (rinse and inspect for bugs first), asparagus, garlic and seasonings. Cook just until the mushrooms have wilted a bit and give off their juices. Immediately pull from the heat and eat the mushrooms using your favorite bread to soak up the juices.

Elixir of the heavens.

i’m out

I love potatoes! I grew up on a potato farm (cherries and apples too) in Leelanau County MI. We ate a lot of potatoes. My dad married a southern gal who liked to cook the occasional rice dish. While we were happy for the variation my dad would usually throw on a pot of boiled potatoes when he saw rice. Now I think, how cheeky! Somebody else made you dinner and you want potatoes? Every once in a while I have to remind him of his wayward ways. When I think back, it seems like there was a pot of boiled potatoes most nights. I am sure that isn’t correct, but kid memories you know. At any rate - I still can’t look a plain boiled potato in the eye. I actually gave up eating potatoes for the most part while in college as I was tired of them. French fries too. Then I started cooking them my way and haven’t looked back. I have 6 recipes for potato salad in my head at any given moment. Same with potato gratins. Love me my tators. For the record, my dad has since broadened his horizons (and remarried) and will eat rice now, pasta too. Now, my boyfriend doesn’t like cold potato salads or any cold veg except salads, but I will trade that off for the fact that he will eat tofu.

This weeks menu of the week host is Jacki at Cooking, Illustrated. Pop on over to see what all the other GF bloggers are whipping up this week. I am sure you will drool. I can’t wait to check out their potato recipes. Our menu this week features potatoes three times: a hot potato salad, herb roasted potatoes and a potato gratin. Really I could have made a new potato dish every night, but decided to hold back on the gnocchi, smashed potatoes and bakers. And I didn’t bring an Indian potato dish to the table this week, even though potatoes and tomatoes are not indigenous to India, they have embraced them both with as much excitement as I have.

It is potato planting season. We have several crazy varieties we plan to experiment with in the backyard, starting this week. If you would have told me when I was 15 that I would be planting potatoes in my own backyard garden, I would have starred at you in utter disbelief. My how we change!

Saturday: Indian, company in town so we went to the local Indian restaurant. I had no pots and pans to wash - yippee!

Sunday:

Lunch:Tex Mex: Grass fed beef enchiladas (in a red chile sauce) and goat cheese enchiladas made with Friday night’s carne asada leftover steak cooked down until it fell apart and then added a burst of new spices. We used leftover goat cheese from our cheese platter appetizer and mixed it with a bit of Monterrey jack and green onion. Creamy and tangy.

Dinner Thai: Lard Nah with crispy tofu and kale - I have been jonesin’ for some tofu and it is being squeezed right now between two plates to make it firmer. I made a fresh batch of frozen (sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it?) spring rolls with rice paper. This time they are stuffed with crab and pork. We have been watching Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch and it makes me crave crab. I made up a batch this week and then froze them in packages of 6 for Thai nights. They actually fry up better after a little freezer time as it dehydrates the rice paper a bit. Can’t wait to try this batch! Dipping sauce: 1/3 tamari, 1/3 rice vinegar, 1/3 dark toasted sesame oil and topped with slivered green onions.

Monday: Caribbean cook out or possibly walk to our local pub and get bun less burgers and potato soup.
Jerk pork chops (with my homemade jerk paste) on the grill and grilled potato salad with green onions and vinaigrette dressing.

Tuesday: Italian
Penne with tomato cream sauce and Pancetta This looks like a great recipe to use those canned garden tomatoes up.

Wednesday: Korean fusion
Salmon bulgogi with Bok choy from this month’s Bon Appetit and crispy sesame rice.

Thursday: Birthday boy wish meal: Meatloaf, broccoli casserole with swiss and bacon, herb roasted potatoes. Dessert to be decided yet.

Friday: American MidWest
Rotisserie chicken from the local market and potato gratin with swiss and tarragon, roasted asparagus. (leftover chicken to be used next day in a curried chicken salad with dried cherries and almonds- that is the plan anyway)

i’m out

This was a tribute to a similar dish that I had at Wild Ginger in Seattle this winter.  I used Jamie Oliver’s Laska recipe (tumeric, lemongrass coconut milk, tamarind were just a few of the ingredients - the book is already back at the library, sorry!) and made up the salad recipe based on memory taste.  This was a really tasty dish, but I wanted the coconut flavor to be more prominent, so I must figure that one out.

The salad was just right.  Shrimp, cucumber, cilantro, chopped peanuts, green onions and crispy fried shallots on top of arugula and dressed in a sweet chile, fish sauce with lots of lime.  Very fresh.  Of course I forgot to write down the dressing recipe, so I will be recreating it from scratch again next time I whip this up.

I love scallops!  For those of you near a Trader Joes, they have the best deal on frozen scallops, unless maybe you live on the coasts.  $10 for a pound. The scoring technique makes them fun to look at too.

i’m out

I am horrible at updating my blog roll, or anything else on my blog.  If you see that your blog is not listed to the right anywhere, in any catagory, send me an email and I will add you to the list.  I subscribe to about 200 blogs (with Google Reader) and I try to add all the GF blogs to the blog roll, but sometime I forget, so don’t be offended if yours is not listed.  Just let me know and I will add your blog link!

Happy blogging!

24 days until the Farmer’s Market opens….

i’m out

This week’s menu swap host is Manda over at Asparagus Thin and peas are the featured ingredient. My darling BF saw the subject peas and promptly boycotted the ingredient this week, but I plan to work them in for a dish just for me, peas with prosciutto and dill. Lately I have been struggling for inspiration and yet trying hard not to repeat menus (except for pizza and grilled asparagus of course). I think it would be great if I cooked something different almost every night for 6 months. In an effort to eat more brown rice (with this months Saveur as inspiration) I cooked up a rice cooker full and now am going to experiment with brown rice fritters and different ethnic flavorings.

Saturday: Mixed grill

Spicy lamb brats and spicy grass fed burgers with caramelized onions and cheese, penne with pesto and creme fraiche and grilled asparagus

Sunday:

Lunch: Vietnamese crab and shrimp soup with mung noodles, mint and basil

Dinner: Pizza!

White pizza with a roasted garlic and chive bechamel (made with goat butter as we are out of regular butter - how did this happen?), Italian sausage, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, feta and some mozzarella.

Monday: Cyprus (ala Saveur mag)

Souvlakia Hirina : Pork kabobs (from Pancetta, our pig) with tatziki with brown rice fritters with oregano, lemon zest and feta, veg to be determined

Tuesday: New Mexican

Green Chile Cheese Nachos (three of my favorite ingredients right there) and fennel slaw with cilantro and lime

Wednesday: Mediterranean mix

Braised leeks (and maybe some kale) and Chicken Provencal and brown rice fritters with parmesan and parsley

Thursday: Fresh American (or whatever you think fits here - I am at a loss)

Seared Scallops with roasted garlic chive butter, peas with prosciutto and dill for me, asparagus for the BF, oven roasted potatoes with garden herbs.

Friday: Mexican mayhem or Indian Monsoon

Company in town - we are either cooking up a Mexican storm with carne asada tacos( with grass fed beef of course - must use it up), pintos de olla, salsa, chips and guacamole - oh and margaritas or we are going out for Indian.

I must confess, I had a really busy week last week and didn’t get around to making my app of the week or my dinner for Friday night as I was helping a friend move. I still plan to attempt the gruyere pinwheels with herbs sometime this week. Also look forward to posts on rubs (as promised) and hotel butters. And I haven’t forgotten about the cocktail of the week feature either, but that feature will be switching to the cocktail of the month.

i’m out

A friend sent this my way today:

WSU Receives Grant to Develop Gluten Free Wheat

The United States’ National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded Washington State University (WSU) a four-year $837,000 grant to develop novel wheat varieties that are free of gluten proteins. Gluten triggers inappropriate immune system responses in people affected with Celiac Disease. This genetic disease can create symptoms that range from diarrhea and cramps to nutrient malabsorption and malnutrition. One in every 100 or 200 Americans or 4 percent of Europeans are estimated to suffer from gluten intolerance. The only effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. Adherence to such diet is difficult, since gluten is also being used as a filler and binder in many non-food items such as medicines, vitamins and paper adhesives.

Scientists from WSU have previously discovered a lysine-rich barley mutant that lacks gliadin, the gluten component that triggers the disease. They hope to identify the mutation and use this to make gluten-free wheat varieties that are also rich in the essential amino acid lysine. WSU has partnered with Arcadia Biosciences, a Seattle-based biotech company, for the task.

For more information visit http://www.wsu.edu/ or http://www.arcadiabio.com/

i’m out

We grill all year round. Nothing stops me from grilling if I really want to, but I am a die hard with both a charcoal weber and a gas grill in the backyard. It occurred to me that it is grill season and we all want to spend more time outside and less time inside for the next many months. With that in mind, I am going to start my rub series. I have several homemade rubs that I keep on hand for those grilling moments. It makes cooking up something flavorful and delicious super quick and easy.

The picture is of turkey tenderloins (which were on sale and I used instead of grilled chix thighs last week) with three different rubs.

Some of these make a large quantity of rub, but don’t despair! They make great gifts! Invited over for a backyard BBQ? Take a small jar of homemade rub as a guest gift. Need an impromptu birthday gift or a stocking stuffer? Any cook would love a jar of rub. They are so easy to put together and so easy to personalize.

Stay tuned as our featured rub this week will be the fusion fennel rub (not pictured)…..

i’m out

Natalie over at Gluten Free Mommy is hosting this week’s menu and the ingredient is cilantro, one of my favorite herbs!  She has been on the South Beach diet and has lost 10 pounds! Congrats Natalie!  Check out her website for a list of many Gluten free menus!

Saturday: Backyard picnic

Spicy Goat brats with potato salad (vinaigrette style) and grilled asparagus

Sunday: Comfort food

Grilled porkloin, with impromptu cornbread stuffing, gravy, rice and sauteed broccoli rabe

Monday: Thai

Stir fried pork with long beans from Gourmet (May 2008 - recipe not online yet) - lots of cilantro and lemon grass in this dish! I will be subbing regular green beans for long beans. I might add a Yum Pla Tho (squid) salad. My local restaurant makes a dish that sounds a lot like this but with lots of mint and cilantro.

Tuesday: Italian American

Parmeasan coated chicken, angel hair pasta with marinara (from garden tomatoes) and green salad

Wednesday: On the road for work

Thursday: Indian from Madhur Jaffery’s book

Keema (with grass fed beef), GF dosa’s and cilantro chutney. Fresh mango with mint for dessert. (Last weeks Keema turned into Korma for lack of some ingredients)

Friday: Localvore Meal:

Whitefish in a horseradish (need to finish off that horseradish root) crust with a remoulade (also a Gourmet based idea). I will attempt to source out the fish, veg and any sides locally, locally meaning the whole state Michigan at this point since our snow just melted! It could mean items from the freezer that are from the garden like green beans. Or stewed tomatoes from the canning pantry.

And now….

Appetizer of the Week: Gruyere pin wheels with garden herbs

I will be attempting to recreate an old standby of mine to a GF appetizer. I am going to use pie crust and roll it out thinly on plastic wrap and then top with my ingredients and use the plastic wrap to help me roll into a tube. Slice into 1/4 inch rounds and bake. Hopefully it is even tastier than it used to be. This was a great go to recipe and I kept a premade log in the freezer. Unexpected guests stopping by for a cocktail afterwork? Turn the oven on and slice. Always a winner.  I am going to shoot for Friday for making this treat, but if I have time, I may do it earlier in the week and I will post any successful photos!

Happy cooking and eating!

i’m out

Things will look a little different in the back yard this year. When we decided to take the house off the market this winter, we decided to make the backyard a mini farm, minus the sheep. We have big plans that will take a while to accomplish, but the first phase of those plans begins tomorrow. Raised beds! We are rearranging the yard to accommodate the shining sun at it’s best and are gong for high production with 10 4×4 raised beds. The compost/soil mixture is arriving via truck tomorrow morning. Half of the beds are built and ready to go.

Of course the lawn still looks scrappy from winter, but that will change soon. Now we can actually get out there and do some yard work now that spring has sprung. Can you tell what the darling BF has covered up with the trellis? Yes, we got Satellite TV this winter. The cord still needs to be buried. We will be planting climbing flowers on the trellis. The birds and squirrels seem to like the change.

We plan to take down the garage with it’s failing, leaking roof and put up a small storage shed instead and use the existing cement floor for a roofed over patio. A small 8×6 green house will eventually be added on too, to help elongate the growing season. The remaining chain link fence will be yanked out and replaced with wooden privacy fence so that we can not always feel like we are in the city. Chickens, yes, we are hoping to have a few chickens for eggs and it appears that the city ordinance might allow for that. No roosters! We don’t want to make the neighbors upset or wake up to early ourselves.

First though, the soil must arrive. I just started planting some seeds in our indoor greenhouse. We converted our dining room with it’s Southern sun and big windows to a seed prep area and brought the full spectrum lights from their winter room downstairs (to keep all the herbs alive over the winter) to the dining room. I have the electric blanket on the table with a table cloth on it to work as a heating mat as these seeds need 70-80F to properly germinate and thrive. I am about 1 month behind on the seed planting, but it took me a while to get organized. Next year, I can do it all in the green house.

Compost pile - we already have a good one going, but this pile will be composting all of our yard waste soon too, not just kitchen scraps. It will supply us with the nutrients we need for our garden plants.

So, the process is underway, the thinking about it was the easy part, now it is time to get our hands dirty!

Maybe the cats will help us!

i’m out