Good Good Food

I had so much fun today that it really saddens me to say that this will be my last post... until someone else posts something. Come on, people, it's turning into the Me Show again and, while I sometimes love being the center of attention, this isn't the venue. I know it's the summer and we're all a little further away from our computers (as it should be) but, really, I don't even have a barbecue! So it you've grilled something interesting, hell, if you've made a good cucumber sandwich, post it! 'Nuff said.

So I spent the afternoon in the kitchen at Young United Church/Crossways with a large group of strange women (I don't mean it like that and you know it) and one strange man (and I totally mean it like that (just kidding Tom)). This was part of a workshop with the Good Food Club. I became a member through the Veggie Van Market where I sell my jam on Thursdays. I'm not going to go into all of the details about their mission statement (seriously, check out the website. They're awesome.) but they're looking to heal the world through food and that's something that I can get behind (since that's pretty much what I believe too).

This started out as a workshop about using the fresh vegetables that are coming out of the garden right now. What it turned into was a free-for-all dinner where we all pitched in on each others dishes and we all had a turn at sticking our hands in dishwater. While we were all standing around at the beginning watching Kalynn start the sponge for bread, I dug around and put together some stuffed mushroom caps that we could munch on while we watched. It was good but I'd rather work on it a little more before I post about that one.

We had fresh whole wheat buns; a vegan lasagna made with lentils, tofu and spinach; baked nachos with fresh yellow tomato salsa; chocolate zucchini cake; and, mine, Kale in Peanut Sauce. I'd never tried the recipe before (Kalynn emailed me the basics just this morning) but Holy Smokes it was seriously tasty.

Greens in Peanut Sauce because this would work with collard or chard as well)
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T oil
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 pound (~2 big heads) curly kale, prepped and chopped (go to 2:10 in the video to see the coolest thing about prepping kale)
1/2-3/4 c water (broth would be nice too for steaming)
2 Tbsp chunky peanut butter
1 tsp hot water

Saute the onion and garlic in oil in LARGE saucepan over medium-high until they're soft. Add the tomato and cook for 2 minutes until soft. Add the kale in one big bunch and then the water. Steam it maybe 8-10 minutes until soft but not mushy. Stir it around frequently so the leaves on the bottom don't overcook. It turns the richest deep green and the leaves are so sturdy that they keep some of the ruffley look. GORGEOUS!

Mix the peanut butter and hot water together and add to the greens for the final minutes of cooking. It's not a creamy sauce that coats the kale though, it's more a light coat of peanut. Seriously tasty.

Breaded Pork Cutlet, um... Marinara

I hesitate because the decision to do it up like a veal cutlet was sort of a last minute one. I had originally thought to do more of a mushroom gravy sort of thing. However, I wanted to make some marinara sauce and you know how it goes.

Preheat the oven to 425F

1 large can diced tomatoes
1 large can chopped tomatoes
3 T Epicure Marinara Sauce Mix

Bring these to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high and simmer for 20. Meanwhile, set up two separate bowls for the following:

2 large eggs, beaten
1 c bread crumbs
1/4 c grated parmesan
1 tsp Epicure Pizza Seasoning (could have used a little more garlic, but then, I always say that)

Dredge 3-4 pork cutlets that have been pounded (excuse me, tenderized) to within an inch of their lives. Actually, about 3/4" would be okay. Brown both sides in a hot pan with olive oil. Meanwhile, spread a few spoonfuls of the sauce over the bottom of a baking dish. Place the cutlets in a single layer and top with a few spoonfuls of sauce.

1 c mozzarella, grated

Sprinkle the cheese over the sauce and put it in the hot oven until the cheese is brown and bubbly.

I put a pot of water on to boil as soon as I pulled the cutlets off of the heat. By the time the spaghetti was finished, the dish was ready to come out of the oven.

Verdict? Would totally do this one again, it was a wicked cheap meal because unbreaded cutlets are less than $2.00 for a giant one. I bought three and Colin had to eat his in stages, it was so big. If you're wondering why there's no picture, well, this dish is a little like me. Gorgeous, warm and wonderful to know in person but not exactly what you would call photogenic. So I've decided to treat it like an old cookbook and leave the presentation of the dish up to your imagination. Bbut i can tell you that it was delicious.

This One Fought Back

Basket after basket of peaches and this was the last day that I could really do them and still call them fresh (in fact, one of them didn't make the cut).

I started this way too late in the evening but, even though it was a long boil recipe, it should only have taken 15 minutes to gel (after the 10 minutes of cooking just the peaches and spices).

I started too late and also didn't realize until after I had started mashing all of the peaches that I didn't have anymore pectin hence the long boil recipe. Plus I'm a sucker for recipes involving cheesecloth.

Spiced Peach Jam
8 cups peeled, pitted, crushed peaches
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
6 cups granulated sugar

Tie 1 tsp whole cloves, 1 stick cinnamon an 1/2 tsp whole allspice into a piece of cheesecloth (YIPPEE!) and add it to the fruit, lemon juice and water in a large stainless steel pot. Cook gently for 10 minutes then add the sugar.

Bring mixture to a boil slowly, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil vigorously and did it ever! I have a tiny burn right between my eyes because this jam spit it at me. Every time I stirred it, it would rage up and start spitting again. Let it boil like that for 15 minutes or until it gels. (This is where things started to get a little hinky for me. It was nowhere near gelling after 15 minutes so I had to let it continue. I still don't know if it gelled but I had to take it off because everything was starting to caramelize. You should see how dark this jam is, with the spices and the darker undertones, I think it's going to be something special).

Ladle into hot jars leaving 1/4" headspace and heat process for 10 minutes.

I'll have to let you know about the flavour... and the gel of course.

What Have I Done...

...to the cherries? Isn't that picture positively gruesome? In reality, my hands looked much purpler. I spent the better part of my morning pitting cherries and, unless you want to see that on a regular albeit annual basis, Joe, I'm thinking that this little guy might like to join the crew here... maybe somewhere around Christmas time... am I being too subtle?

It was a good way to spend the morning and once you get used to that horrid sticky tacky feeling on your fingers and just start plowing through, it's not so bad. This is a recipe from a Bernardin leaflet that came in one of the boxes of jars. I can't wait to try it.

Sweet Cherry Preserves (says 6x250 mL but I ended up with 6 properly canned and then 500 mL just shut in a jar that I'll have to refrigerate)
4 c pitted sweet red cherries, cut in half
5 c granulated sugar
1/2 c dry red wine
3" stick cinnamon
1/4 c lemon juice
1 pkg BERNARDIN Original Fruit Pectin
1 1/3 c unsweetened pomegranate, cherry, grape or other "red" juice (their quotes, not mine)

In a large deep stainless steel saucepan, combine cherries, sugar, red wine and cinnamon stick. Let stand at room temp for 3-6 hours.

Add lemon juice and 1/2 tsp butter or margarine (to reduce foaming) to cherries and bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Simultaneously, in a separate small saucepan, whisk pectin into unsweetened juice. Stirring constantly bring pectin mixture to a boil and then add to the cherry mixture. Bring the combined mixture to a boil that can't be stirred down over high heat. Boil hard for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, discard cinnamon stick and skim foam.

Ladle hot preserves into hot 250 mL jars leaving 1/4" headspace and then heat process in boiling water for 10 minutes. Cool and check seals. Store in cool, dark place up to 1 year.

Recipe Request - Erin's Beet Top Thingees

You know the ones that I mean. With the bread dough?

...And Then I Ate It

The picture's a little foggy because I was sort of juggling the cell phone but it was perfect that berry. It hung underneath a few leaves probably thinking that it was safe, it had escaped us on Sunday night when it was ready. There was no need to be concerned really, there was only one person picking this time and she doesn't always look under leaves as well as she could.

That berry was wrong. I looked, I found it...

Um, You'll Know That You've Eaten Some Bread

I'm not sure what possessed me because I got up and felt like baking some bread. Part of it was that I just couldn't shake the feeling that it was Friday and that I had nowhere that I had to be *shrug*. I was going to try making Pizza Fondue (I'll hyperlink that once I post about it) and through it would be good for dipping since I didn't have a baguette or anything.

Because of that whole Friday thing *shrug*, I started just a little too late for the amount of time that I really had (the really stupid thing is that, even though I had the Friday feeling, I had been reminding myself all day that it was indeed Saturday and that I had to leave at 2:00 to teach. What can I say, I'm an idiot.) so I had to ask Meag to hang around and pull the bread out at the right time. She did me one better and put a thin coat of butter on it when she pulled it out. The other ridiculous thing to do when under a time crunch is to try a new recipe from Jamie Oliver that requires, I think, a certain level of familiarity with bread dough.

Jamie Oliver' Basic Bread Recipe (from The Naked Chef)

3/4 oz active dried yeast (couldn't find neither a scale calibrated that lightly nor consensus on the internet as to what the Tablespoon equivalent would be. I averaged it all out to 2 Tbsp)
2 Tbsp honey (or sugar) (I went with sugar)
just over 2 cups tepid water (I went with 500 mL on the nose)
just over 1 lb bread flour
just over 1 lb semolina flour (if you can't get hold of any semolina flour then bread flour will do) (I figured out that he probably meant a kilo of flour as 2 lb is 908 g and 92 g would definitely qualify as "just over")
2 Tbsp salt

Dissolve yeast and sweet in half of the water. He does his bread dough on a flat surface and, while I would love to dry that someday, I just don't have the counter space so I used my giant bread bowl while the oven was warming. Measure the flour and salt into the bowl, make a well and add the yeast mixture to it. Gradually add the flour with your fingers (you know, that swirly thing they do when they make pasta). Add the rest of the water and once it's mixed, start kneading for about 5 minutes. He say that it will be a wet dough but I have to confess that I didn't read that line and added a little more flour as I mixed it, that would account for the heft.

Proof it in a warm spot for about 40-90 minutes (yes, that's the range he gave. With my time crunch, I'm sure you'll understand that I proofed for 40 minutes... just) or until double in size. Punch it down for about a minute and then shape it. I did one monster loaf that ended up taking up my entire pizza pan and a bunch of what he called snap bread. Mine are more like the breadsticks from Domino's on the snap-to-chewy scale.

Even with the flub, I would probably make this again. Taste? Pretty darned good actually. The snapbread is a little yeasty but it doesn't proof for as long as the big loaf. Density? Wow. You will know that you've eaten some bread.