mon petit choux (for the love of brussel sprouts)

Brussel sprouts on the stalk look like an amazing alien creature. They are green and most delicious in spring or early fall. Delicious alongside anything umame,as well as roasted potatoes they are also full of actual nutrients. They just went on sale for 50 cents a 6 oz bag at our local fruit market.

My two favorite methods are roasting  or as a weird mixed slaw which is picnic safe as it contains no mayo:

Roasting
1. Preheat oven to 425F
2. Take 6 oz brussel sprouts Remove any funky leaves, then rinse.
3. Peel a thin slice off the the stump. Then Make an x in the stump. If very large, skip this step and slice head in half. If you want slice half a sweet onion in with this.
4.Drizzle olive oil (2 tb) on a casserole dish or roasting pan, add two cloves garlic sliced thin. Toss to coat.
5. Put in oven for 20 minutes turning half way through. Remove and salt to taste pref with a large flake salt.
6.Drizzle with one of the following dressing options and serve:
   
Maple Ginger Soy
 3 tb  soysauce (tamari for gf folks) ,2 tb maple syrup (honey works too) and 1/2 inch ginger grated plus a pinch of dried ginger. Mix allwith 1 tb water.

Lemon and oil:
Mix1/2 lemon's juice (2-3 tb) with 2 tb olive oil. Toss to coat. You could add 1-2 tb leftover pesto from another night.

Lemon soy
Mix Juice (3-4 tb) of a lemon with 3 tb tamari/soy sauce.

Butter and thyme/rosemary
Melt 3 tb butter , add 1 tb leaves removed from stalk.



Brussel slaw
1.Wash and remove stumps from 8 oz sprouts.Slice into shreds.
2.Wash and slice 2 green onions
3. Optional half a tart apple,cubed
4. 1 grated carrot
5. Optional 1 tb poppyseeds,
6. Optional4 oz fresh broccoli crown sliced into tiny florets. If choosing this option double the dressing.
7. Optional 1 oz. Bacon or coconut bacon or shredded parmesan, &/ or 1/4 tsp smoked salt
8. Optional 1/4 cup currants or raisins
9. 1/2 cup dried cranberries
10.2 tb walnuts, sunflower seeds or pecans
12.Dressing-follows below
13. Toss all together, S&P to taste

Dressing for Brussel slaw
Mix 1 Tb brown, whole or spicy mustard, with 3 tb maple syrup (or one of honey+1 of water), 3 tb cider vinegar, and 2 of olive,or sunflower oil.

Crockpot Asparagus Corn Chowder

This is one of those long autumn nights, I know I'm going to have no time to cook so I'll do ahead AND clean out the fridge.


throw all this in a pot
2 ears corn removed from cob or 1 can corn...whichever is cheaper

1 poblano pepper
1/2 onion sauteed in 2 tb butter
1 tomato
we had 3 tiny sweet peppers also so those went in
1/2 tb cumin
 1 tsp sage
1 tsp smoked salt
5 cups water or broth
1 tb cider vinegar
cook on low 8 hours in crockpot or simmer 20 min on stove in a pot
after fully cooked add a 1/2 cup cream or coconut cream (to the pot )before serving

Optional:
this is really flexible so use up your leftovers
you could run this through a stick blender
or add leftover pumpkin pack or bits of pumpkin from the freezer 1/2 cup puree
or 1/2 cup leeks(then skip the onions)
2 handfuls cooked frozen black eye peas or northerns for protein
those 3 tb of leftover salsa in a jar
other  veggies like cauliflower
or sweet potatoes
peas,
green beans
for a porridgey texture add 1/2 cup cornmeal or polenta
basil (if it's still growing)
carrot coins? you get the picture.

Basic sauces: lemon and oil, roasted brussel sprouts...

This should be self explanatory Lemon and Olive oil is one of the best sauces out there. The technique pretty much lends itself to a variety of  citrus fruits and to a degree just use sweeter vinegars (like balsamic or apple) in a smaller quantity to enjoy your deep green things and noodley things more when there is no lemony goodness around.

Here's how to do it.

On many things squeezing 1-2 tb olive oil and the juice of a lemon will do it. Add a sprinkle of salt if you desire ...which I do. Done. This is helpful for salad, Chopped salad and as a dressing on white bean soup.

Let's say you just stovetop roasted some mushrooms and onion or say broccoli or really anything verdant or nicely bitter(Chicken breasts too if you eat them). Before you stir fry add 1/2 onion half moon sliced and sautee in olive oil, adding 1-10 cloves of sliced garlic once the onion becomes translucent. Grab a cup of water (or wine if the mood calls for it) to keep by the stove. Add a half cup to your pot after the onions and garlic play for a bit. Add salt here if you use it. Grate 1/2 of your lemon's (well washed) peel into the pot. Once the liquid reduces substantially to a syrupy/brothy texture add the juice of the lemon. Don't worry this works with bottled lemon juice and no zest if that's what you have, the flavour is just a bit less bright. Garnish with fresh herbs like thyme,mint, chives, basil,etc. when you have them and when it doesn't clash.

Let's say you are roasting brussel sprouts. Fresh brussel sprouts, not the completely ruined frozen variety. So it's fall or spring and you want delicious sprouts. Clean those sprouts and cut a partial x through their butts after trimming the stem. Sliced 3 cloves of garlic on that lb. of sprouts and toss in a liberal bath of olive oil 3-4 tb. Zest and squeeze you lemon on it, Add salt again if you like. add 1/4 cup water and cook in the oven 15 minutes at 425 F. Put under broiler at same temp for last 10 minutes

apple cheddar rice cooker risotto (veg,gf with dairy free / veganoptions)

I'm going to start out by saying that you shouldn't do this. Your rice cooker is not designed for it and you might set something on fire..Really.

I do it at least once a month but I don't leave the house when I do and I check it every 15 or so minutes. Even then it's really good but not quite risotto textured.

1.Take 1 cup rice (can be med or long grain) add 2 cups water with broth paste (or cubes) or broth
meanwhile sautee 1 chopped sweet onion (like a red or yellow) or one sliced clean leek.
5 cloves minced garlic
and one lb of clean and chopped mild or bitter greens (kale, collard, dandelion, chard,cress,broccoli leaves or spinach. Mustard and Turnip do not work well here)
if you want to add a chopped mushroom or a chopped apple feel free
add a bit of salt nutmeg and pepper
use olive or sunflower oil as your oil
add a handful of walnuts or pecans if you can afford to and want to


2.Cover and let sit until rice is cooked

with cheese 3.  Grate or mince up 1/2 cup very sharp cheddar. add this and 1 tb dijon to your rice and stir thoroughly.

dairy free   3. Take 1 tb dry mustard , 1 tb dijon,1 tb lemon juice, 1/3 cup nutritional yeast and 3 tb sesame paste, if you have almond or cashew butter add 3 tb. Mix all thoroughly. Now mix into rice.

4. Add 1/2 bottle gf hard cider to your pot. stir. The more you stir the more creamy.
5. Reset cooker and put back on cook cycle. allow to be used in keep warm cycle for up to 24 hours. garnish with cress or parsley if desired.

spontaneous cider :when good fruit goes bad

I admit it. I'm a little skittish about home brewing. While I'm a good cook I'm kind of bad at following orders (um I meant recipes). I am also not punctilious about the state of my dishes. I was also raised by a woman who was the kind of teetotaler who is uncomfortable with using alcohol based extracts in high temperature baking. Add to this the exploded beer atrocity of 1998, the scary bottles of dandelion wine no doubt still lurking in the basement I haven't seen in a decade and the ubiquitous horribleness of my first sourdough starter (since rectified) and I've gotten almost silly about it. These factors have led to things like making slow fermented sauerkraut in the fridge rather than risking fermentation in the warmer (no doubt) faster climes of my cupboards. Meanwhile I envy the glowing jewels of mead, beer and lately other wines that arrive periodically at my house courtesy of benevolent friends.

My favorite alcohols are cider, bourbon and mead- in that order. I'll also admit a fondness for gluhwein. Witbiers used to also be on that list but then I found out I'm not supposed to eat wheat. Unless I research, cider is safer out and about. I still get a mood for the occasional oatmeal stout. Beer is tasty but frankly cider is even better. Plus, no risk. In the plains I mostly had a choice between Hornsby's and Woodchuck. When we moved to Chicago I discovered two things. 1. Alcohol is really really expensive here....like 8$ for a six of the cheapest frankly not very tasty cider I can find in these parts. 2. cider is everywhere and for some reason bourbon is 2x the price it was in Kansas. 3.The apples here are awesome.. I had forgotten.

Now, I can spend 10$ on 22 oz of a fabulous organic sweet cider from Michigan (JK Scrumpy) or an extra 2$ on a six pack of Original Sin or Wyder's. Given that it still takes me weeks to finish that sixer I was ok with that.

One hot late summer day this year I grabbed a half gallon of cider along with some tofu and the peck of apples from our csa. A few hours later I deposited our purchases in the fridge and thought nothing of it. The next am I went to grab a glass of juice and noticed that the cider was carbonated though not yet funny smelling. I looked up some stuff online which said it was fine to drink but thought that maybe I should wait a day or two to see what developed. I checked and stirred it daily to release the gases building up on the plastic walls of the cider jug. Three days later it smelled and tasted like the 10$ per 22 oz product including the ridiculously high alcohol volume and stayed that way for about 5 days by which time it was gone. It makes sense, wild yeast here can't be too different from Michigan and the cider was a preservative free Organic Michigan apple cider (cost 5$ for the half gallon: a bit of a splurge). So now with our CSA Thanksgiving share of 2 gallons of cider I was wondering. how we could fit two jugs of cider in the fridge. It came to me...I could see if I could make it into hard cider was as easy as it appeared.

The day of the share arrival I poured 1 gallon of fresh apple cider -a mixed apple variety from our csa with no preservatives (or it won't ferment) into a 1 gallon sterile carboy (old Rossi jug) and covered with a bit of clean fabric secured with a rubber band. The next day I stirred the mixture (not bubbling yet as it's late November and it's chilly cause we're cheapskates) and added 2 oz Wyder's dry apple cider (because that's what's around and again, it wasn't bubbling yet).

Day Two. rotated and stirred to aerate as I a read blog that said this was important

- apparently. Makes sense, the yeast need to breathe. Mixture appears quite fizzy and tastes like apple soda. To taste this I poured off an ounce or so.

Day Three

The cider appears full on cider-ish, it smells sweet and a touch skunky at first. Keep in mind it took me a minute to smell this and I have quite the sniffing abilities. After allowing it to breathe a few minutes while I googled the possible dangers of skunky cider the eggy smell had evaporated. Now it smells sweet and appley. Mixture tastes like a nice honey sweet cider with a light kick and a mild sour bite. Drank half a glass. So far not ill. Aerated remainder and left on counter. I will let you know what happens on day 4 and beyond.

Warnings: 1. Don't be an idiot with alcohol. Drinking with kids (inside or outside of you) and operating machinery like cars, cell phones (in some cases) or drills is not only hazardous to your health but it's likely to get you arrested or killed. Drinking with idiots is likewise inadvisable. Please, just don't.

2. This is clearly an experiment. Like mushroom hunting you probably shouldn't do this without an expert on hand, decent equipment, testing strips and possibly a cold cellar. I AM NOT AN EXPERT. This might be dangerous, or lethal. I don't know. Research safer methods, ok?

3. Being an experiment, I'm not sure how this will turn out. I'll let you know.

I still venture that this was dangerous...and tasty.
While storing in fridge day 4-10  I rotated the bottle regularly . The sweet bubbly stuff had more of a kick and got gradually drier,and less skunky .
We drank about 1/2 of it before it started smelling like vinegar (no gas resistant bottles around) around day 10. At this point we just opened it up and rotated it daily to allow the gases out. On day 30 it had separated clearly into vinegar and mother of V. We strained and rebottled for use in salads and as hair rinse.
 

universal pesto (vegan or cheesy) gf, cf

a blender or food processor
1 lg handful (1/2 ish) nuts or large seeds
1 0z aged cheese (or 1/2 oz tahini and 1 TB dry mustard)
1-2 oz herbs/aromatic greens
pinch salt and maybe pepper
2-4 cloves garlic
1 oz olive oil
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Tonight I have crinkled cress and nasturtium leaves from our garden getting a bit wilty. If I had them and wanted this a touch spicier I could add radish leaves. If I wanted it mellower I could use spinach or chard. I could also use cilantro.
I will add 3 cloves garlic

and 1 oz cheddar (which I buy in bulk) and walnuts (which are yummy and sitting around)with salt pepper and olive oil. I will blend this until it's mostly uniform.

barley and apples

The 25 lb sack of barley flour I ordered from a local mill arrived a few days ago. It's been sitting on my living room floor imploring me to bake something already or at least put it away. For those of you wondering why any city dweller would want a 25 lb sack of barley flour let's just say Barley flour is normally 3.79 for 20 oz plus tax. That brand is not local or organic. Barley is a whole grain which I use as the main flour in all kinds of things including bread, pie, cookies, muffins,pancake mix, cake..this was 37$ for 25 lb of local organic barley flour including shipping which is 9.25 cents per oz. as opposed to 18.95 cents per oz at the local store. Barley is a whole grain flour with a moist crumb that no one in my house is allergic to. It is not gluten free but it is tasty and wholesome. I also only have to lug it up the stairs once and don't have to worry about running out later this winter when we have less $. So it's about half the price , more convenient, local, organic and I can afford to get it right now. Win! Lesson here: search for local mills online for inexpensive grain prices.

There's also a 15 sack of apples on the kitchen bench reminding me there's another 10lbs still in the fridge from last fortnight's csa delivery and the thanksgiving delivery is in 10 days...which all means I better get cooking soon.

First the apples.....

I thought that using up the 10 lbs or so of apples sitting in the fridge was a good plan so I went by my old standby of applesauce. Stef and I eat a lot of applesauce. I didn't have time to sit near the dutch oven for an hour so I decided to experiment with crockpot applesauce. I prepared half of them , paring off bad spots , core and a few worm holes (because those happen in organic fruit), I leave the peel . I then threw them in our 3 qt crockpot on low with about 20 oz of water 1 lg stick of cinnamon. 2 inches of diced fresh ginger, 2 cloves and a pinch of all spice. The next morning the sauce wasn't quite as chunky as a I like so I decided to add another 20 oz water and prepped the other half of the apples and threw them in the mix. I had a cold and forgot about them for a day. This am I realized that I could smell apples cooking and discovered they were almost smooth. Applesauce disaster. The 'applesauce' tasted like applebutter... kind of. I added other stuff. Then I ran it through the stick blender until fully smooth. Now it tastes like apple butter but a touch thin. IT should be applebutter in the morning when I turn off the heat.

Applebutter

a slow cooker with a low setting

10 lbs of apples pared and diced (not peeled) and divided in to 2 equal piles.

set one pile in the fridge

water

1 stick cinnamon, pinch of allspice

1 thumb fresh ginger diced

3 tb honey

2 tb lemon juice

1 tb blackstrap molasses

2 tb cider vinegar

1. Put 5lb of apple bits in crockpot with chunked ginger and spices

2. Cover with water (about20 oz) and set to low

3. The next day add the rest of the apples and another 20 oz of water

4. Allow to continue cooking overnight

5.add honey,lemon juice,molasses and cider vinegar

and blender this thoroughly until smooth

6. Store if it's thick enough for your uses, cook up to 8 more hours. Note: the naturally occurring pectin in the skins should help it firm up a bit so err on the slightly runny side. Refrigerate and give some to a friend.

now I will be making up some of this stuff:

http://squirreleats.blogspot.com/2011/11/barley-quick-bread-and-barley.html

Schi -meaty or vegan , or dairy (gluten free) usually about 45 minutes total time (good crockpotter)

When we were kids Other Mother Brother would occasionally make this sauerkraut soup( or a very similar one) with bones during winter. For all the reasons you would expect it was cozy and still makes me think of him.  Because our sorrel grew up and bolted when I wasn't looking (silly me) I can't have my favorite (and much more traditional for summer) Schi  (http://www.ruscuisine.com/recipes/soups/schi-and-borsch/n--620/)  and we had mushrooms and sauerkraut lying around , hence:

Schi  ----warning! your house will smell like sauerkraut for a day or two after making this. Fortunately it freezes well and is very very cheap.

take:
1 lb  sauerkraut (traditional ferment if you can find it)reserve the liquid for the broth
1 lg chopped onion or 2 cleaned leeks chopped
4 cloves diced garlic
1 sliced or shredded carrot
3 ribs celery (optional)
8 oz mushrooms (I usually use a mix of rehydrated shitake and fresh crimini) chopped into hunks
2 tsp caraway
4 juniper berries(not necessary but nice)
4 peppercorns or a few grinds of pepper
1 bay leaf
 and saute in 2 tb fat (olive oil, beef or pork drippings, butter) in a heavy bottomed pot  deep enough to make 4 qts
(like my 5 qt enamel dutch oven or a stock/crock pot)

once onions are translucent add:
1/2-1 lb parsnip, potato and/ or turnip)
and
(optional) meat : 1 browned pork  chop with bone, or  beef soup bone/oxtail of choice or 6 oz of chicken prepared as you would for soup. Similar quantities of rabbit would likely also work but as a pescatarian I have no clue how.
and /or
(optional) more dried mushrooms
and /or
(optional) add 9 oz tasty but not at all traditional kale
and/or 6 oz of barley (which is not gluten free and is optional)

3 qts broth (beef, chicken, or mushroom) or water plus the reserved sauerkraut (please note that this is not low sodium and is not intended to be)

Bring to a simmer and cover until :

in the case of no meat
-----------------------------------------------------------------
your root veggies begin to  fall apart

in the case of meat on  a bone
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your root veggies begin to  fall apart and the meat begins to fall off the bone
(fork shred the remainder and pull out the bone- if you can add the marrow to the soup and cook a bit longer)

in the case of meat not on a bone
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your root veggies begin to  fall apart and the meat is cooked (you would know better than I would)
 turn off the fire and  now, for the final countdown you can finish in several ways 
 1. use a stick blender or potato masher on about half and then stir for a creamier texture
 2. garnish with parsley or paprika (about 1 tsp))
 3.  add 1/2 c sourcream or hung yogurt and stir until consolidated
 4. serve it as is
5. 1&2, 1&3, 2&3, 1-3, or take half and do 1 and then 3 with the other half ...oh you get what I mean
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I like to eat this with dill pickle and whole rye bread spread with sour cream/ hung yogurt if we have it (well not if there's any in the soup) garnished with sardines or herring(when Rabbit doesn't have to watch), or thin cut raw sliced beets (when she is there to see it) or maybe some home made apple sauce.

Sorghum quick bread and pancake/biscuit mix (vegan/ gf options)

Barley is NOT GF if you are celiac or gluten intolerant use the Sorghum...please

Barley and Sorghum are whole grains that plays well with other flavors and have a moist crumbly texture. As a whole grain you should either use the flour relatively quickly or leave it in your freezer to prevent spoilage.  Recipes doubles lovely. Don't freeze this unless you WANT bread crumbs as that's what freezing this does. You can mix the wet and dry willy nilly or if you want packets of quick bread mix for busy evenings you can mix the dry ingredients to store in a jar or tin and add the wet when you want to make it up. This will be ready in less than an hour start to finish with about 45 minutes of downtime.
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Dry mix
3 cups sorghum or barley flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tb baking powder
3 tb olive oil or your preferred oil (yes this goes in the dry mix)
Mix until resembles sandy stuff and store in air tight container
If using this as pancake mix add 1 egg and 1 cup milk per cup of mix. If using as biscuit mix just add the 1 cup milk, buttermilk or milk analogue. They will be crumblier than wheat flour biscuits and pancakes but also more tender.

wet stuff
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oil to oil your pan
2 eggs or 2 tb ground flax in one oz boiling water allowed to soak until gelatinized
1 cup milk, buttermilk or milk analogue (almond worked well)
1 tb lemon juice or cider vinegar(optional-do not use with buttermilk)
heat oven to 350F
oil your pan -a dutch oven (leave the lid off), loaf pan, muffin,or bundt pan works
Whisk wet into dry and pour into pan (take care to fill it nor more than 2/3 full as this stuff rises
and allow to bake 25-30 minutes