Snowed In and Raiding the Freezer

When the refrigerator has less and less to offer, and getting to the grocery store is not an option, cupboard and freezer come to the rescue. I was happy to find in my freezer tomatoes and okra and—saints be praised!—sweetcorn from my neighbor’s September stand. I do have more tomatoes in cans and boxes, but it was fun to throw together a meal from the freezer, where I also found frozen chopped jalapeño and one last chicken breast from a bird braised earlier in the season. Using the last of my garlic (rookie mistake, running out of garlic!), I had to resort to garlic powder augmentation. Better than nothing, so good to have on hand in the pantry for emergencies.

 

What to go with this hearty, nourishing winter meal? What else but corn muffins made with Bob’s Red Mill polenta, so wonderfully coarse-grained and toothsome? Even if it does use up one of the last two precious eggs in the house! If I were snowed in for several weeks, I could survive on polenta and oatmeal after today’s snowed-in feast, which will stretch another day or two into the future. As it was, adding reconstituted tomato paste, filé gumbo spice, and hot sauce, I had enough to take some to a friend once my driveway was plowed. 

Serve over rice. Very satisfying!

My Rice Pudding These Days

 

 

For starters, I boil the rice first. As much rice as I want to make, no measuring the water, because after rice and water come to a boil, I rinse the rice, drain it, and then set the strainer of rice directly over the bottom of the double boiler to steam. No timing. It all depends on how soft you want the rice: separate, toothy grains or a creamier texture? When it has the texture you want, stir in coconut milk, and beat in one egg, as much sugar as you want, and a splash of vanilla. Golden raisins, currants, and shredded coconut are not necessary but make the pudding holiday special. 

Serve in individual ramekins, grating fresh nutmeg on pudding before serving.

Without precise measurements or timing, this pudding will be slightly different each time you make it, and trial and error will help you duplicate your favorite results. It's good warm, right from the pot, or cold from the fridge.

P.S. Making more rice than is needed for one dish always makes sense.

I like sticky rice.

Finally getting around to that chutney....

I got out the jars and everything at the beginning of the week, but every evening I was too tired, so it was Friday already when I finally got the rhubarb-mango chutney together. Love the aroma of vinegar and spices in the house! You can look online for a recipe that appeals to you or simply make up your own. Chutney, I've found, is very forgiving. And if anyone in Northport needs mustard seeds, let me know. Somehow I managed to accumulate three containers so am more than willing to send two of them to new homes.

 

Spring Fever -- Go Wild!

 

Dandelions,leeks,toothwort, violets

Fiddleheads in the woods

Outdoors every day, anyway, keeping track of what Nature is up to, why has it taken me so long to begin foraging? The extent of my wildness in past years has been to add toothwort leaves and edible flowers to ordinary salads. I never tried dandelion greens before. And fiddleheads are a whole new world for me: if I'd known how delicious that little dish would be, I'd have brought more home! Next year....

Salad with carrot shavings added

Sautéed fiddleheads with yellow violets

Hot or Cold -- You Choose

 

Start with leeks, sautéed in olive oil.

Next, add thinly sliced (peeled) potato.

Add chicken broth and let simmer for half an hour.

It is "getting good," as my grandma used to say.

Puree in blender or, for a rustic soup, simply mash.

Add cream and heat.

Almost ready!

Instead of chives, I chose freshly grated nutmeg for garnish.,

Hot today, cold tomorrow -- good either way.

 

I didn't measure anything and used only one leek, half an onion, and one potato in this soup inspired by a recipe for vichyssoise in Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days, by James & Kay Salter.

 

Vegan for a Day

When a gracious hostess who is also a vegan invites me to a potluck, I want to take something she will eat, even if she is making chicken for her guests, and fortunately, one of my cookbooks at home offered what I saw as a likely recipe for the event. It began with couscous, which I prepared with my old standby, Better Than Bouillon vegetable base. No saffron in my spice drawer. What to substitute? Turmeric – didn’t have that, either. (Why not? Must remedy the situation.) Curry? No, I love curry, but it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. Luckily, I had a Moroccan spice mix on hand, Ras El Hanout, and decided that would be perfect.

My dried fruits were sliced apricots and then -- a variation from the recipe -- figs, which seemed perfectly appropriate to a North African dish. Sliced almonds and dried fruit were toasted and plumped in olive oil before being added.

I wanted a festive look for the topping and took a flyer on something I’d picked up on impulse at the store: “Salad Toppers.” The edamame and cashews gave a little crunch, while cranberries added color. A recipe that manages to be different while also being easy to prepare gets my vote, and people said they liked it, so I’ll probably do it again sometime. 

My New Favorite Recipe for Tzimmes

 

(Sorry I don’t have more pictures. And sorry this is my first post since Thanksgiving, too. I have cooked, I have baked, I simply haven't posted. No excuse.)

 

Above was the assembled dish before it went in the oven, and it’s the only photo I took. Big mistake. Because when dinnertime rolled around, I decided this was my most successful tzimmes ever. 

 

Most recipes for this dish call for large quantities of ingredients and feed a big crowd, but we would be only four at table – three guests and me – so I was happy to find a recipe online that began with half a pound of sweet potato rather than three pounds! Here is the ingredients list for the Traditional Rosh Hashanah Tzimmes recipe posted online at Chabad by Miriam Szokovski.

Miriam's original ingredients list:

 

1 large Spanish onion, cut in half or quarter rounds

¼ cup oil

1 lb. carrots, sliced

½ lb. sweet potato, cubed

10 prunes, diced

1-1/2 cups orange juice

½ cup honey

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

 

Onion in tzimmes was a new ingredient to me, but the rest was familiar, so I decided to go for broke and sauté that onion to add to the mix.

My Changes

However, I pared the quantities down further and only used:

 

½ onion

½ sweet potato

2 carrots

 

I also added ¾ raw apple, sliced and diced, because I wanted that tender sweetness – and because I’ve always made tzimmes with apple. And maybe Miriam did this, too (I don’t know), but I squeezed the orange juice fresh from the orange.

 

Finally, the online recipe called for the dish to be simmered on the stovetop for an hour. Again, because I’ve always done it this way, I baked it in a casserole dish in a 350-degree oven. Since it is served warm, it’s something you can do ahead of your guests’ arrival, and I was glad I’d started early, because one hour wasn’t enough. An hour and a half was perfect. For the final half-hour I sprinkled just a bit of brown sugar over the top, a touch easily omitted if you don’t want the extra sweetness, but I highly recommend topping with sauteed sliced almonds right before serving. The crunch was a nice contrast to the rest of the soft, sweet vegetables and fruits. And I loved the onion! Thank you, Miriam!

Kitchen tip: Microwave oven makes a good overnight breadbox.