Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
See those sad little hockey pucks? Those are my second attempt at Sass’ cornmeal biscuits using the modified recipe I found on her website. Alas, they weren’t much better than my first try.
Flat as the biscuits were, they were pretty tasty slathered with butter and raspberry jam. Still, I think I’ll hang up my cornmeal biscuit apron and move onto other things.
Chocolate things.
Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
I first heard about quinoa a couple of years ago. At the time, it was really hard to find and I soon gave up looking for it. These, days, however, it’s easily found in the natural foods section of most grocery stores. Quinoa was a major protein source for the Incas and is often called a “super grain” because it contains all of the essential amino acids the body needs. It is a tiny, round grain and pops when you bite it. I find quinoa to be fairly neutral tasting, and I prefer to use it like rice. The standard method of cooking it is to boil the grain like pasta, until it is tender. Then drain and use.
One note about quinoa – It is covered with a very bitter substance that must be rinsed off before cooking. I usually rinse the grains for 3-4 minutes under running water.
So, on to the recipe. It was good. The quinoa tossed with the roasted red pepper dressing was light and flavorful and I really liked the addition of corn to it. I can see making this salad during the summer with fresh, grilled corn and maybe some fresh basil. In fact, this salad could easily stand on it’s own, without the meat.
The pork chops are rubbed with a mixture of olive oil, chili powder, garlic, cinnamon and salt before pan frying. The spice rub nicely complimented the pork and wasn’t overpowering. Again, I’d like to try grilling the pork chops.
Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
The picture I had in my head of this dish was nothing like it turned out to be. I was imagining a creamy, warm, white liquid in which black grains of rice floated. What I got was black. Black liquid, black rice, etc. Looking back over the recipe, I’m not sure where I got the idea that black rice woudn’t turn everything it cooks in black. I mean, Sass even says that in the headnotes to the recipe. Yes, I am a dork.
But, despite looking like black maggots floating in black ink (now there’s an image for you), this was really very tasty. Sometimes I find rice puddings to be boring and one dimensional. This was neither, and, as a bonus, it turned my tongue purple. Now how many rice puddings can say they do that!
The recipe itself is very easy. You boil black rice until tender, add in a can of coconut milk (I used the light stuff) and some sugar and boil until the liquid is reduced. I topped mine with almonds and mandarin oranges, but next time I’m going to try whipped cream or coconut ice cream.
Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
This was one of the first recipes I marked out of this book. Besides the novelty of making my own popcorn (Wait! Popcorn doesn’t grow in microwave bags?), I love caramel popcorn. My family has a caramel popcorn recipe that we’ve been making since I was a little girl. It is gooey and good and maybe, someday, I’ll post it here.
But this recipe called for almonds. And, if you haven’t heard, I love almonds.
So, my first task was to figure out how to make popcorn. From scratch with no air popper. I know it can be done, because I’ve seen Alton Brown do it. Sass’ method of making popcorn involves tossing the kernels with a bit of oil, dumping them into a paper bag and microwaving them. It sounded easy. It sounded too easy and I was suspicious. Besides, Sass warns that some microwave manufacturers advise against popping popcorn in the microwave. What? I thought that’s what microwaves were made for. Oh my God. Was I going to blow the house up? Would I forever smell of burnt popcorn?
It was time to step back from the recipe and eat some chocolate. Which I did, for several days while contemplating the enormity of my task.
Finally, I decided I was being a dork and I just needed to do this. So I tossed the kernels in oil, plopped them in the paper bag and set the bag in the microwave. I hit the start button and ran to the other side of the room, mentally reviewing where the fire extinguisher was, the location of the nearest exit and whether or not I should warn Bryan that catastrophe was imminent.
Then I heard the first kernel pop. Followed by a second, then a bunch of pops, and the smell of popcorn filled the air. When the popping had mostly stopped, I stopped the microwave and gingerly moved the greasy, hot paper bag to the counter. After a few deep breaths, I carefully opened the bag and . . . I had popcorn. Real, fresh popcorn that tasted like corn instead of chemicals. It wasn’t stale or too salty. It was good. It was so good that I almost ate all the popcorn right then and there.
But, I had a recipe to make, so I dutifully made caramel, tossed it with the popcorn and almonds and scooped it into balls. Yeah, balls of dentistry horror. These puppies darn near wrecked a year’s worth of dental work that Bryan and I just finished. I think I let the caramel cook too long, because they had an odd burnt taste. Bryan and I each ate a popcorn ball, then I pretty much picked the almonds out of the others. Next time, I’ll stick with the Crossley family caramel popcorn recipe and just add almonds.
Another detour from the grains cookbook. Deal with it.
Part of my morning routine involves browsing food blogs and copying recipes that look really good. The fact that I will have to live to be 300 years old to try every recipe that I’ve copied doesn’t deter me in the least.
One of those blogs is written by Mark Bittman. Besides being a cookbook author, Bittman also writes a food column for the NY Times. His recipes are usually quick and easy; I don’t think I’ve tried a bad one yet. So, when I saw the video and recipe for his Parmesan Cream Crackers, I didn’t even try to resist. Next thing I knew, I was in the kitchen dumping flour, salt, parmesan and butter into the food processor. Add some milk, process a bit and less than 5 minutes later, I had cracker dough. Five minutes after that, I had the dough in the oven. Seriously, it was that easy.
I took some liberties with the recipe. First, I thought I had cream but I didn’t. So I used milk. I also added some dried rosemary to the dough and sprinkled coarse salt on top. The only issue I had with the recipe is it says to roll the dough out to a 1/2-inch thickness. I thought that was way too thick for crackers, so I went to about 1/8 of an inch. I probably should have cooked the crackers a little longer; the ones in the middle weren’t quite crunchy. However, that didn’t stop us from eating them all for lunch.
Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
Look at those muffin liners! They are called tulip muffin papers, and I love them. I need to open my bakery just so I can bake everything in them. Sadly, those muffin liners were the best part of this recipe.
The muffins weren’t bad. They were just kinda tasteless. They had a really nice texture and were dense and moist, but they were sadly lacking in the lemon flavor. And the sugar. My major beef about this recipe is the amount of sugar that is called for. Sass says to use 1/2 to 2/3 c of packed light brown sugar, to taste.
WTF?
To taste? How do I know how they are going to taste if I haven’t baked them yet? And once I bake them, it’s a little late to be adding more sugar. Deciding to error on the less sweet side, I used 1/2 c of sugar, and it wasn’t nearly enough.
Yet, I liked the texture enough that I’m going to play with this recipe. I’m going to cut down on the buttermilk and increase the amount of lemon juice. I’ll probably increase the sugar to at least 3/4 c. I also think a light lemon glaze would help up the lemonyness.
Stay tuned . . .
Note: I bought the tulip muffin papers from kingarthurflour.com. A simple google search revealed several more places that you can buy them at, including Amazon.
Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
Over the past year, Bryan and I have become flank steak aficionados. We tend to eat it at least several times a month. It takes well to marinades or rubs, cooks up in a flash and is delicious cooked on the grill, the stovetop or under the broiler. And I always have a bag of brown rice in the cupboard. In fact, except for the meat, I had everything in the house needed for this recipe.
The brown rice salad consists of brown rice (duh!), cucumber and carrots with a dressing of peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil. At first, I was afraid the peanut butter would be overpowering, but it wasn’t. In fact, we could hardly taste it. The dressing needed a little more acidity, so next time, I’ll up either the rice vinegar or add some lemon juice to it.
The flank steak was delicious, although the marinade was pretty tame. It added a little bit of flavor, but not a whole lot. I marinated the meat for about 6 hours, so next time I’ll try marinating it overnight.
Unfortunately, the pictures don’t do the dish justice. It was delicious and healthy and something I’ll definitely make again.
Currently cooking from Whole Grains, Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
I only have few food dislikes. I hate liver (and am too old to be told it is steak, mom!) and I hate oatmeal. I dislike liver because of the taste. My dislike of oatmeal, however, all comes down to texture. I don’t care how good it tastes, it’s like eating snot – slimy, mucousy, stringy snot!
Sass has several recipes for breakfast oatmeal in her book, but I’m not going to try any of them. Why not? See the above paragraph. Instead, I’m going to tell you how I cook oatmeal. It may be a little strange, but it delivers oatmeal that is snot-free. For you oatmeal purists, you may want to stop reading now.
The first thing I do is use steel-cut oats. They may take a little longer to cook, but they retain their grainness. So, take a big pot and fill it with water (I never measure how much water, but it is probably about 2 or 3 quarts. Bring that water to a boil, add some salt and then add about 2 cups of steel-cut oats. Boil the oats until they are tender, usually about 15-20 minutes. Then (and here’s the strange part), drain the oats and rinse them in hot water until there is no sign of mucous. You should be left with distinct grains that don’t look or feel gummy. Drain well.
I usually eat these oats reheated and topped with yogurt, fruit and almonds. If I’m not feeling the sweet, I’ll top them with some butter and salt and pepper.
Obviously, this isn’t from the grains cookbook, but if you try these nuts, I don’t think you’ll mind the diversion. In fact, you might just get down on your knees and thank me. What can I say? I simply can’t stop baking sweet things (or eating, them, either)!
If I ever get motivated to hand out little Christmas presents to friends, these nuts will have a starring role. I found this recipe on smittenkitchen.com, one of my favorite food blogs about a month ago. I immediately earmarked it, went out and bought a bunch of almonds, and then proceeded to let the almonds languish in the cupboard for a month.
Sigh! If I had only known how good these were going to be. They are sweet, salty, cinnamony and just a bit spicy. They are dead easy to make and even easier to eat. They are good as is, but I’ve already got some changes in mind. I would have liked more of the salty, so I’ll increase the kosher salt to 2 teaspoons. Neither Bryan nor I could really taste the cayenne pepper. This time, I used 1/8 teaspoon. Next time, I’ll go up to 1/4 teaspoon. I’m also curious to try different spices. But first, I think I need to go eat some more of these.
Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.
I’ll never make a good southern gal. I can’t make biscuits to save my life, which is a shame, because they are easy, delicious and make a great side to just about every meal. And with some jam or jelly, they can double as dessert.
But, alas, my biscuits tend to fall flat. Or tough. Or tasteless. You get the idea, I’m sure.
My problems with this recipe started as soon as I added the wet (buttermilk and an egg) to the dry ingredients (cornmeal, spelt flour and leavening). According to the recipe, I was to mix the wet and dry, then turn it out onto the counter and knead the dough until it was smooth. Hah! This was no dough; this was muffin batter. There was no way I was going to be able to knead it, because it was just too wet, so I settled for patting it into a circle. I was able to cut out the biscuits with a biscuit cutter and get them transferred to my cookie sheet with only minimal distortion. I plopped them in the oven and waited, not really expecting much.
Well, ten minutes later I had round pucks. They didn’t rise like traditional biscuits, but they didn’t spread out nearly as much as I thought they would. I decided to serve them anyway with the soup I had made (Bryan, bless his heart, will try anything. Once.).
The biscuits weren’t bad, once we split them open and slathered on the butter. They tasted like cornbread (the southern kind, not the sweet, cakey northern kind). I thought they needed more salt, more sugar, more flavor. But adding some jam really helped. To be fair, Sass recommends serving these with sage butter.
I don’t know if I’ll try this recipe again. I’m confused why my dough was so different from Sass’. I don’t think I measured wrong. If I do, though, I’ll increase the salt and sugar maybe add some other herbs.
Are you wondering why there aren’t any pictures? I’m finding out that photographing grains is hard. Most things just look gray or brown and these biscuits were no different. Sass says they are a pale yellow and her picture shows a tall, pale yellow biscuit. Mine were dingy gray from the spelt flour.
Note: After a little internet research, I discovered Sass’ website which, coincidentally, had the recipe for these biscuits. On her website, she says to add 1/3 cup of buttermilk first, and then add more if needed. The book calls for 1 cup. Armed with that knowledge, I might give these another try this week.