Adapted from a recollection of favorite Indian family recipes from my colleague Sundar at Fixya.
Roasted Eggplant Dip
Roast a giant eggplant coated in light oil, either on an open charcoal grill or in a grill pan in the oven @ 400 degrees, for 35-40 minutes, until very tender and cooked through.
Peel the eggplant completely. Mash the eggplant to a pulp, and add yogurt (regular dairy yogurt or nondairy coconut yogurt) until the mash becomes creamier. The consistency doesn't have to be totally smooth, though.
On the stove, heat up some oil (grapeseed or olive oil will do) and throw in a couple teaspoons of cumin, mustard seed, chili pepper flakes (or fresh minced chili pepper) and turmeric. When the spice mixture begins to pop, remove from heat, and combine with eggplant mixture.
Serve as a side, with pita chips or flat bread.
Roasted Spicy Potatoes
Dice 3 russet potatoes into quarters or cubes. The size of the potato dices depends on your preference.
In a skillet, toss the diced potatoes with 2 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil. Add 2 tsp chili pepper flakes or fresh minced chili pepper, salt, cracked black pepper, and a tiny dash of sugar. Cook in the skillet at medium-high for about 7 minutes, trying to coat potatoes with oil and spices as evenly as possible, then transfer potatoes to a bake sheet. Roast potatoes on the bake sheet in the oven for ~25 minutes @ 400 degrees, or until they look crispy brown.
Serve warm as a side or with toothpicks as a finger food.
Spicy Carrots
Peel and shred some carrots. Squeeze some lemon juice onto the carrots, and add some salt. In a saucepan or fry pan, fry up cumin and mustard seeds in a little bit of oil, until the mustard seeds begin to pop, and then add it to the carrots. Serve as a side dish
A fistful of sliced almonds
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup freshly shredded Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano cheese
Preparation
Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.
Blend oil and vinegar.
Place the quartered brussels sprouts on a heavy rimmed baking sheet.
Add garlic, drizzle with oil mixture, and add salt and pepper to taste.
Add sliced almonds.
Mix everything with your hands to coat everything, then spread them out in an even layer.
Roast for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 8-10 minutes to cook evenly. When brussels sprouts and nuts are as dark and crispy as you want them, remove the pan from the oven and let them sit for 5 minutes or so to slightly cool off.
Thanksgiving at the Abdala house is hardly big, loud, or full of people. We are a small family, most of our relatives reside in Argentina, where Thanksgiving is not an observed holiday; it is seen more as a fun gringo day celebrating happy time, good company, and gluttony. "I don't care what patron saint day we're celebrating today, it has nothing to do with me and my culture" was my dad's response to my mom's request that they accept a Turkey Day invitation from a neighbor, when they first moved to San Francisco in 1980. This is a picture of my dad on Thanksgiving a few years after he arrived, and he was still in the dark about the meaning or point of Thanksgiving.
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29 years later, the family has grown to enjoy, appreciate, and fully observe all American celebrated holidays. The evolution of our holiday menu is an accurate measure of how each of us has contributed our common heritage, our individual tastes, and our growing family traditions.
"If you aren't grilling something on the menu for tonight, then you shouldn't call yourself an Argentinean," says my uncle Perico, a bona fide gaucho and horse breeder who resides in the Andean countryside of Mendoza. We hardly spend holidays with him, which is quite a shame, but it is mostly due to his never having visited the U.S. He always tells us that if he ever does, the first place he wants to visit is Texas. "I want to see cowboys, I want to see their horses and eat their steak, I wonder if it's as good as ours."
Grilled steak in Argentina is soft, buttery, and it often resembles the meat pulled from a slow-cooking stew. The cows are grass-fed, the land is large, and there are enough cows in the country that there is hardly a need for factory farms. Meat is a manifestation of pride for the people of the country, so meat, from the time it is a cow’s living flesh, to the moment it is pinned to iron stakes over a roaring fire, is taken very seriously.
--> Through some bizarre extraterrestrial intervention—because nothing on Earth could explain this evolution— my mother and I are vegetarians. We do not embrace meat like “normal” people. In fact, according to my Uncle Perico, we might as well be considered shameful and "maybe a little sick" for voluntarily rejecting meat. Nevertheless, we swallow our ideologies and are mindful of the carnivores at holiday meals, and so we do partake in the meat and poultry preparation. Our turkeys, meats, carcasses, what have you, are usually cooked out on the grill. Unlike the grills that can be found in the Argentine countryside, which are usually the size of an entire living room, our home grills limit us to a few chickens or one large turkey and some steak at a time, in most cases. The recipe for this year's grilled turkey can also be found in Sunset magazine. You have to butterfly the turkey, or cut off the back, so that bird can lie flat on the grill.*
*I am leaving this part of the menu to my mother, who does not get squeamish when she butchers birds. When it comes to mammals, she is more like me. We are shameful and "maybe a little sick" for not embracing meat, says my Uncle Perico and Aunt Nora (next to Perico below).
Spaghetti Squash Ravioli
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My mother understands why one must possess a certain kind of grace to enjoy cooking for a family and to cook really well at the same time. She has that kind of grace. She makes the time and finds the patience to master delicate raviolis made by hand, from scratch. She runs a business, manages a household, care for her mother, organizes her husband, coaches her employees, loses her cool, disciplines herself with yoga, but above all, she creates food. She lays out the handmade dough for the raviolis, spaces out spoonfuls of filling made from homegrown sage and spaghetti squash, and cuts out each square dumpling with precision. I think her decision to make pasta from scratch goes beyond how fantastic homemade pasta is compared to store-bought pasta. She remembers watching her Italian grandmother rise at six in the morning to handcraft the pasta for the family's Sunday dinners. In an effort to mirror her grandmother’s craft, my mother hasn’t bought a pasta machine, a dough churner, or any fancy equipment that couldn’t be found in stores in the 1950’s. She keeps it simple, making fillings with soft cheeses and garden herbs in a pan over the stove, cutting the dough with a handheld dough cutter. I imagine the difference lies in her sauces. I envision her grandmother’s sauces as meat-based, heavy, thick with tomato, truly a rugged Calabria recipe. My mother’s are simple, light, earthy and aromatic.
My grandmother generally dislikes cooking, because she is a city diva, but she knows how to make a good batch of mashed potatoes, the Argentine way. Thus, this is always her job at every Thanksgiving or big dinner. We would never ask her to contribute anything else to the menu (for her sake and ours). She also knows how to set a very dignified and elegant table. How could she not, she is a city diva.
You can leave the skins on or peel off, it your choice. Rub potatoes with oil. and place on a baking sheet. Bake potatoes in oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, for 20 minutes. At this point, check up on the potatoes, puncture surfaces with fork, and return to oven. Check the potatoes every 10-15 minutes, but don't leave potatoes in for more than 45 minutes. Potatoes should be tender, like baked potatoes. You should be able to stick a skewer or knife into the potato very easily.
Transfer potatoes to the stove, in a stockpot. Smash down the potatoes with a masher or a ladle. Add yolks, about 1/2 teaspoon or a few dashes of nutmeg, and a teaspoon of salt (or more, to taste). Over medium heat, mix together the ingredients. Add a stream of milk, no more than 1 cup, just enough to soften and blend the mashed potato mix. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined and the texture is light and fluffy. Serve warm.
It may seem odd to say that people “create foods.” I think the phrase expresses how a simple set of ingredients, which are themselves foods, are combined, augmented, and elaborated to take on a unique form that someone designs to be eaten. Everyone who has a mouth, a stomach, and a sense of identity can create, consume, and appreciate amazing food. The food one creates is a work of art that pleases all the senses. Food creates a stairway between the mind and the soul by way of every sense. This is why food can change us. This is why we can create food.
And let's not forget my father's contribution. The man would rather hang himself from the debilitated rafters of our ranch tract house than be poised over the stove or by the oven on a holiday, but he will be the first to get in the car and run us some errands! A saving grace during any holiday season, Enrique sets on his horse in his Land Rover and picks up a sack of shiny oily coffee beans from Pete's Coffee and some fresh-baked artisan bread from the Mayfair Bakery. He loves making a fresh pot of coffee in the morning, slathering on some unsalted butter and quince paste on a piece of fresh crusty bread, and dunking it in his coffee. This is heaven for him in the morning, and John and I have taken a liking to coffee with bread, Manchego cheese and quince paste in the evening for a light, less sugary dessert. It’s an enchanting grouping of savory, yeasty, fruity, and awakening flavors that melt together.
Crazy Elsa, who is comprised of equal portions of crass and sweet, is another one of the few Argentinians that can be found in the San Francisco Bay Area. She makes and caters killer desserts out of her little home kitchen. You can't tell if she is having the time of her life making her mouth-watering alfajores, pionono rolls, and merengues, or if she has decided that "today is the day" she will kill her husband, take his money, and open her own bakery in North Beach. In any case, she is an artist in our eyes, and she will be providing us with a quince paste-filled PASTA FLORA.
The foods that are created by a family are, above all, fail-proof. Our family has countless faults, shabby tempers, busy schedules, emotional ebbs and flows. But we have fail-proofing down to a science. And it can most especially be found in our food. The flavors we create will never fail us.
My co-worker Donna is a beautiful redheaded mother and linguist from South Dakota. She speaks with a prosody that is characteristic of American dialects influenced by Dutch-German ancestral blends, dialects that develop in spread out, isolated spaces. She moves very slowly, even when she is hurrying, so it looks like God is bestowing upon her the gift of time and tranquility all at once.She looks maternal, she thinks like a mother, and even though I met her when she was busting at the seams pregnant, even though she is a relatively new mother with a daughter who's barely one year old, I cannot imagine her being any other way. I sometimes wonder if I, as a mother, would ever look as dew-faced, as tender, as tranquil, as her. Hardly.
Donna and I have had some short chats on vegetarianism. She knows I am a vegetarian, so she asks me about protein alternatives, balancing my nutrients, and taking supplements, every now and then. It makes me wonder if she wants her daughter to be raised as a vegetarian, but I have never asked. She appears to be a very "meat and potatoes" kind of gal, and this "vegetarian thing" is clearly uncharted territory for her. Recently, she mentioned how disappointed she was with Vegetarian Times, a vegetarian lifestyle magazine, and I agreed with her that it's interesting how vegetarians are pegged, and how most people forget that normal, mainstream people can also be vegetarians, for many different reasons. Vegetarians are oftentimes depicted as bohemian hippie-types who spend their days in search of the rarest, oddest, most obscure variety of beans and leafy greens. Not all vegetarians wear hemp, Veg Times, so quit it with the ads for all the Marley clothes. The magazine also likes to assume that no vegetarians like cheese; all the recipes are healthy, borderline lifeless. Native Americans in the 10th century had more elaborate and flavorful dishes than some of the featured recipes in this publication.
When Donna asked me what publications or sources I turn to for vegetarian food, I told her that I basically make it up as I go with a lot recipes. If I see a recipe, so long as the main part of the recipe isn't meat, I think it can be transformed into a vegetarian dish, or, at the very least, a pesco-vegetarian dish. On many nights, I get off work, it's dark out by the time I get home, so I feel like I have little time and energy to concoct something suitable for consumption, and I simply end up trying to combine random ingredients from my cupboard. As long as I have some type of chopped nuts, beans or legumes, and some spices, I can make a variety of things. My savior, the dutch oven.
Here is a recent invention, Donna and other new converts would appreciate this:
Thursday Night Stash
Ingredients. 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons of cumin (I know, sounds like a lot, but it's really 2) 1 teaspoon coriander 1 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon of seasoning mix*
1/2 yellow onion
3 zucchinis, halved, then chopped into slices 3 skinny carrots, chopped 2 cloves of garlic, chopped a handful of mushrooms of your choice (but preferably a plump round kind); chopped 2 hands full of pecans, walnuts, cashews, or pinenuts 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs white balsamic or red vinegar
*Seasoning mix is kept in a mason jar, and consists of equal parts of the following: Lawry's seasoned salt course sea salt oregano allspice ground peppercorns (you can also use a rub or Old Bay as an alternative)
Directions. Turn range on to medium heat. In a dutch oven or deep, large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil with all spices, until this combined spice mixture becomes fragrant, (one minute). Add onions, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula. Heat onions until they become slightly transparent, then add the second tablespoon of olive oil. Add chopped veggies to mixture, and stir. Cook veggies on medium heat for 5-7 minutes, then add nuts and bread crumbs, stirring the mixture gently. Add a splash of vinegar to mix, I'm not really sure exactly how much, but drizzle as though you were drizzling dressing on a salad. Stir mixture, then cover for 5 minutes. Reduce heat, taste for salt, and continue stirring occasionally. Remove from heat before veggies get soggy; you want them to remain tender and crisp on edges. It's really a matter of personal taste; if you like your veggies a little softer, cook mixture a little longer. Serve with a dollop of greek yogurt, a slice or two of crusty bread, like a pugliese, and a glass of Malbec. Let me know how this turns out for folks.
. . .and get this, they actually have cookbooks. With recipes. Of food. Maybe it's the shitty weather or the lack of fresh produce in my fridge, but since last week, my brain-off mode consisted of me reminiscing about the lovely days I spent in the British Isles as a beautiful young woman (unaware of how bitchy I could be, oh the bliss) with a good set of bosoms, a trusty red raincoat and camera, and a fantastic travel companion, Annie. If I were a lesbian, well, you know. . .
But I am not, so . . .
My deep-seeded nostalgia for the British Isles compelled me to take out my scrapbook and there, I found my stash of traditional Scottish recipes, with London Tube ticket stubs marking all my favorite dishes. Traditional in this context properly translates to "exotic" for me, because these dish concepts are totally foreign to me. I did not grow up using potatoes and leeks and sheep guts for sustenance. Whiskey is another story.
Here is a recipe for Corned Beef Souffle and Cock-a-Leekie Soup. These can also be found online at www.rampantscotland.com.
I'm warning you now, I only make these for the special meat-and-whiskey lovers in my life. These are not recipes for the unadventurous or the faint at heart. These are die-hard. I chose them because they're fun to prepare with a friend and inexpensive to make.
Enjoy.
ps- I think I've been inspired to post some photos of my travels through Scotland. This photo was taken by a fellow traveler in the Isle of Skye (my kitty is named after the island).
Combining corned beef and eggs creates a nourishing, low-cost dish. The quantities below are sufficient for two people
Ingredients: 6oz lean corned beef Small can of tomatoes, drained 1 large onion, sliced 2 eggs, beaten 2 tablespoons tomato juice Pinch of mixed herbs Method: Slice the corned beef and layer onions and tomatoes, sprinkled with tomato juice and herbs as you go. End with tomatoes. Pour the beaten eggs over the top and bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes. Serve with a salad.
"Auld Reekie" Cock-a-Leekie Soup
The "Auld Reekie" does not refer to the soup being "smokey" but to the origins of the recipe in Edinburgh which used to be called Auld Reekie in the days of coal fires. Cock-a-Leekie soup makes a regular appearance in Scottish kitchens but this variation has a special ingredient - Scotch whisky! It will, as the say, "stick to your ribs".
Ingredients: A medium boiling chicken (giblets removed) 3 slices of streaky bacon 1lb shin of beef 2 lb leeks 1 large onion 5 fluid ounces Scotch whiskey 4 pints water 1 tablespoon dried tarragon Salt and pepper 8 pre-soaked prunes (optional but traditional!)
Method: Mix the whiskey, tarragon and sugar in the water. Chop up the bacon and place the chicken, bacon and beef in a large bowl and pour over the whiskey marinade. Leave to soak overnight. Place the chicken etc in a large soup pot. Chop up the leeks (reserve one) and onion and add to the pot. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for two hors, removing any scum as required. Remove the chicken from the pot, remove skin and bones. Chop the meat into small pieces and return to the pot. Cut up the shin of beef, if required. Add the prunes and the last chopped leek and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. It will serve up to eight people.
Okay it wasn't really a DJ, it was my neighbor, and he is not a DJ. But he is a self-proclaimed flavor artist; I'd much rather refer to him as a flavor engineer (he is, after all, a PhD engineering student). I give you the ultimate Tropical Margarita!
Tripp Tropical Margarita
20% Gold Tequila
20% Triple Sec
30% Unfiltered Mango Juice (pure, not diluted, pulpy kind)
20% Ice (by volume)
(if you don't understand these percentages, it's okay. It's because you're not a flavor artist).
And the "SECRET" ingredient:
A scoop of Passion Fruit Sorbet
This is the ingredient that makes a world of difference and makes this margarita sooo unique.
Combine the ingredients, shake them up in a blender, and poor into your favorite fancy glass. And enjoy. This is the ultimate weeknight drink, folks. I cannot stress how great this drink is on weeknights, for I have never, in all my adult life, craved a drink so badly and felt such satisfaction and satiation of stress and pain, from an alcoholic beverage. You will literally be blown away (by a refreshing tropical breeze).
Joe Bonanno made this recipe popular as a Firehouse dish. When it comes to chili powders, have a couple on hand, and as you experiment with this recipe, you can choose the powder that suits your taste for heat. Leaving the pot uncovered while your chili simmers will make it thicker and less wattery.
Ingredients Serves 10 (so freeze the remainder of it for a mid-week microwave dinner, or take the leftovers to a friend's potluck, or take the leftovers to a soup kitchen)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large carrot, chopped medium
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced, or 1/4 cup drained canned chopped green chiles
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound dried lentils, rinsed
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 (15-ounce) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15-ounce) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 stewed (28-ounce) tomatoes
1/3 cup chili powder
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Optional: shredded cheddar cheese, lime wedge, cornbread to serve.
Directions
In a large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, green and red peppers, carrot, jalapeno pepper, and garlic. Cook until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in 7 cups water, lentils, tomato paste, kidney beans, and pinto beans. Stir to blend, adding stewed tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, and crushed red-pepper flakes.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until lentils are tender, about 45 minutes. If the chili starts to dry out, add hot water as needed. Season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.
Serve with cornbread, shredded cheddar cheese, and a wedge of lime. . . yummy!
MY FAVORITE GOULASH
This is a great recipe for a slow cooker or dutch oven. It's easy to come home and just throw all the ingredients together, letting them simmer while you do other stuff. I've provided a vegetarian recipe, but this dish easily accommodates chicken or beef. All the veggies can be substituted for other things you like (or what you can find in your fridge). Make sure, however, that the thicker, heavier veggies get more cook/simmer time than fragile veggies, like leafy greens, tomatoes, and peppers.
1 yam or sweet potato, cubed or sliced
3 small finger potatoes, peeled and cubed
10 baby carrots, chopped into fourths
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, cubed
2.5 cups cooked lentils (see below)
1/2 cup red wine
12 oz diced canned tomatoes, drained
Italian parsley for garnish (optional)
Directions
Chop all your veggies, and place them into prep bowls: onion and garlic together, potatoes and yam together, carrots, bell pepper and zucchini together. Set aside.
In a braiser, dutch oven, or large saucepan, heat olive oil on medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, and set heat to medium. As the onion and garlic simmer, add paprika and coriander; stir until the onion mixture is red from the paprika, golden from sauteing, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Add chopped potatoes and yam, making sure that there is enough oil in the pan (add a drizzle more if all the oil is used up- you don't want veggies sticking to the pot!). Stir ingredients lightly. Next, add carrots, bell pepper, zucchini; stir together. All contents in the pan should be simmering and heating up. Then, slowly stir in wine. All your veggies should be sizzling and immersed in wine. Reduce heat slightly (medium-low). Add canned tomatoes and lentils, stirring until all the contents is evenly mixed. Cover pot and let simmer on low heat for approximately 20 minutes.
Serve topped with Italian parsley bits, your favorite grated cheese, a slice of crust bread, or a side of rice.
YUM.
Lentils Preparation
Make a bundle of lentils that can be used later for lentil loaf, an ingredient in a salad, or a quick healthy.
I cheat sometimes and buy ready-to-use cooked lentils in the produce section of Trader Joe's. I think Whole Foods also carries some ready-cooked lentils, too. It's a huge timesaver for weeknight dinners.
Spread lentils out in a single layer on a white kitchen towel or a light colored work surface. Check for and discard any dirt, tiny stones, and damage lentils.
After checking through the lentils, place them in a strainer and rinse thoroughly under cold water.
They are ready to cook after rinsing. The lentils do not require soaking before cooking.
Lentil Cooking
Lentils must not be overcooked or they will become soft and mushy. Different varieties require different cooking times.
Use 1 1/2 cups of water or broth to 1 cup of lentils.
Add water or broth to a saucepan and if desired add flavorings, such as herbs, garlic, and onions. Do not add salt until the lentils are cook because the salt will toughen them if added at the beginning of the cooking time.
Bring water or broth to a boil and add the lentils. Boil for 2 or 3 minutes and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until tender. Cook green and brown lentils for approximately 45 minutes and red lentils for 25 minutes.
Doneness Notes:
Be sure to start taste testing the lentils for desired tenderness 10 to 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Do not overcook or they will become mushy.
If adding lentils to a salad or if you desire a firmer textured lentil in your soup or stew, only cook them until they have a tender but firm texture.
If cooking to use in a puree, cook until soft.
Cooking times will also vary depending on the age of the lentils, which affects their moisture content.
When using packaged lentils, be sure to check for tenderness before the end of the suggested cooking time. Most suggested cooking times are longer than necessary and could cause the lentils to become mushy.
The kitchen tools featured in this post are intended for young working (or studying) folk with little-to-zero culinary background or inclinations, who work at least 35 hours a week, who may or may not have kids (but most likely don't- yet), and who have small kitchens with pathetic counter space. John says that they can all work for camping as well. I took inventory of my kitchen after John and I scored big-time with our wedding registry, and identified the most useful pieces and the most absurd pieces. Most of these items can be found in all price ranges, from Ikea to Salvation Army to Williams-Sonoma, so start making a birthday wish list.
1). Dutch Oven. The ultimate in cast iron cookware. Simmer, braise, sautee, even bake in it! Goes from your stovetop to your oven to your table. I suppose it's the composition of the pot, but it cooks things in half the time, and it makes me oh so happy to see that dinner is ready surprisingly early when I make stuff in this little guy! When you're done cooking and chowing, just put the lid back on and throw it in the fridge; you don't even have to transport the leftovers. I recently posted a quick recipe for cornbread, which I usually make in my dutch oven. Seriously people, you won't need another pot in the kitchen once you have this thing. It's a little heavy to accompany you on your backpacking trips but it's worth hulling if you're car camping.
2). Food bag clips. These little guys really keep things neat and fresh. Suddenly, potato chips don't go stale after 3 days, muesli doesn't end up on the floor, and frozen vegetables aren't covered in frostbite. I recommend Ikea Bevara Food bag clips. ikea.com
3). 2 nice heavy medium and large wooden spoons. A great alternative to silicone spatulas. I like sticking to natural materials, even though silicone is thought to be more hygenic than wood because it doesn't retain moisture. Whatever, these are cooler and you'll have them for years.
4). A medium-sized wok. Stir-frys are the quintessential weeknight-at-home entree; you just throw random stuff together and cover it in your favorite Asian sauce. Stir-frys are especially fabulous when they don't end up all over your stovetop and kitchen floor. Woks are great multi-purpose stove-top cooking pieces that offer the broad high edges and all-encompassing heat to make a quick dish. Also, like the dutch oven, it's a key to making single-pot dinners that can be served up in the container in which it was cooked, thus eliminating dishes and excessive clean-up.
5). A cookbook holder. Ladies and lads, take care of your cookbooks- they are expensive, they are vital reference pieces in your library, and they make pretty coffee table books. Cooking.comoffers a nice adjustable hinged holder at $23.00. Or you can go the fancy route and purchase a Williams-Sonoma glass and olive wood holder, which comes with a convenient stip of metric and English measurements. www.williams-sonoma.com. These little suckers also earn you some prep space on your countertop.
6). Tupperware: Promise me you won't be holding any tupperware parties, though. You can get tupperware anywhere. Home Depot even sells tupperware. eBay, your local neighborhood Dollar Store. . . The best part about tupperware is that you can confidently store your leftovers and scraps in the fridge or in your pantry, without having to worry about plastic films or aluminum waste. Break-proof, microwave-safe, portable.
I think the figs, sage, and Italian parsley bring this recipe together. My aim was to give an American recipe some Mediterranean and Middle Eastern touches.
Ingredients:
1 medium egg
3/4 cup veg. broth
1 batch of Cast Iron Cornbread (see recipe above)
1 cup diced onions
1 cup celery
1+ tbsp coriander, cumin, paprika, rosemary, Italian parsley,
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup crushed pecans and/or walnuts
3/4 cup dices dried black mission figs
1 can corn or creamed corn (optional, for those of you who really like corn)
1/2 cup diced apple
1+ cups finely shredded Gruyere with some larger chucks for an occasional cheesy bite
1 clove minced garlic
12 leaves sage - don't cut them up.
Directions:
1. Prepare and bake cast iron cornbread. Let it cool, then cut it into small cubes. This cornbread is so tasty that cutting up like this may feel kind of wrong, so maybe make a second batch that won't be sacrificed.
2. preheat oven to 350. set aside 2 1/2 quart glass baking dish w/ nonstick cooking spry.
3. beat together eggs and broth
4. mix dry goods. stir in egg and broth.
5. Pour into baking dish, bake for 1+ hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
VOILA
Cast Iron Cornbread (courtesy of James Reddell)
If you like Marie Calendar's Cornbread, then this is not the recipe for you. If you like true southern cornbread, thick, moist and not a bit sweet, then break out your cast iron skillet and put your apron on.
Ingredients:
For the Skillet ( I use my dutch oven, too)
3 Tbsp. oil
Dry
1 1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup flour (try whole wheat flour for a hearty variation)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Wet
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
2 large eggs, beaten
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
2. Pre-heat* 10 inch cast iron skillet in oven with 3 Tbsp. oil.
3. Mix together dry ingredients.
4. Mix together wet ingredients in a separate, large bowl.
5. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients, mix well.
6. Check temperature of oil in skillet; make sure it's hot enough (maybe drop a tiny bit of batter to test, if it fries up it's ready).
7. Pour batter into skillet with hot* oil and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F.
8. Serve cornbread in the cast iron skillet. It cuts easily with a butter knife.
Notes:
* The oil should be hot. It should be thin and may even smoke a little. If the oil isn't hot enough to sizzle vigorously when you pour in the batter, the cornbread will stick to the pan. On the other hand, if the oil starts to smoke, it is nearing its flash point (think FIRE), so be careful!
