Food | mulberryshoots

January 12, 2013

“Wild Flavors” . . .

This book by Didi Emmons about her transformation as a cook after visiting Eva Sommaripa’s farm in Dartmouth, MA. has consumed me since I opened it in the mail this afternoon. It is a tale of farming, food foraging and eating naturally from picked greens and herbs, wild mushrooms and bartering for other foodstuffs. It reminds me somewhat of Helen and Scott Nearing’s back-to-the-land movement but on (foodie) steroids. Its inspiration makes me want to eat way more simply and to rely upon myself and to waste not, want not except what I make with my own hands. A good idea for oldsters and younger-sters alike.

Here is an excerpt from the book entitled: “Breakfast Ideas from Eva’s Head Farmer” to give you a taste of this wonderful book:

“Peter Levasseur, Eva’s head farmer, is thirty-three years old and packed with lean, hard muscle, like the deer and coyote that roam the area. He lives in Eva’s nearby cottage with his two dogs, Dukka and Mazi.

Peter has a talent for cooking and as he does in farming, he pays attention to details in the kitchen. His food is some of the most delicious and imaginative I’ve eaten. i asked Peter about breakfast–the only meal I’ve ever seen him consume, since he eats lunch on the run and dinner around midnight. He told me:

‘First I make French press coffee, locally roasted. I grind it with the partially shelled caco nibs that were given to Eva by a local chocolate company. I pour the hot coffee into a mug with a vanilla bean slit in half. Then I stir in raw honey.

My breakfast changes with the seasons. I make or buy sprouted bread. I slather on raw honey, then raw almond butter; then I drizzle on unfiltered flaxseed oil or coconut oil. I then sprinkle on Himalayan sea salt and freshly grated nutmeg. Also, for a beverage, I like to juice chickweed with ginger and apples.

I asked him whether his breakfast was seasonal.

I have a huge mortar and pestle. Come July I pound basil with garlic, oilve oil and goat cheese. I eat this layered with tomatoes on sprouted English muffins.

Another favorite is mixing raw oats and local berries (wineberries, raspberries, or blueberries) with yogurt and honey.

Other times I crush garlic in olive oil and spread this on an English muffin as a base coat, then I layer on hummus, tomatoes, and fresh herbs (they grow 3 feet away.)

I make oat shakes. I soak rolled oats overnight in cold water, the odd cashews or almonds, and fruit and blend it all up in a blender or Vitamix.

Also, a favorite snack of late may sound odd: chopped ripe tomatoes, chopped onion. Heritage brand cereal (which is like frosted flakes without sugar), garlic, basil, olive oil and lemon juice. I love it!'”

That’s just a single page from this volume. Emmons, the author, runs restaurants and a non-profit bakery in Boston for those transitioning from homelessness. She writes that she can lose her tummy roll just by eating at Eva’s farm for a week. I’m thinking it’s a refreshing change to start the new year. The fridge is near empty and we’ve been eating out of the pantry since the huge holiday feasts we partook of for days at Christmas and for my birthday holiday. I’m thinking that now might be a good time to make a list for what to buy at the health food market tomorrow.

peach smoothie in the making

Postscript: Since writing this post, I have discovered a perfect breakfast for me: Shiloh 7-grain sprouted bread, toasted; spread with Barney brand crunchy almond butter (no oil film to stir up, just tasty crunchy almonds,) drizzled with Billy Bee Canadian honey. I ate one slice and had to make a second, it was so good. For lunch, looking forward to trying toasted whole grain sprouted bagels with poppy seeds, layered with Boursin herb and garlic cheese spread, thin slices of tomato and red onion on top. Yum!

January 7, 2013

making Pho . . .

Yesterday, don’t ask me how, I happened upon a recipe for Vegan Pho. Pho, as you might know, is a classic Vietnamese beef broth, made with beef, leeks, charred ginger root and a melange of spices. When serving, the broth is clarified (defatted) rice noodles cooked and added to the broth, fresh, thin slices of prime beef, fresh mint, basil and cilantro leaves. Serve with lime wedges, bean sprouts, siraicha and hoisin sauces. Quite elaborate for a dish that is a national country specialty, right?

I’ve never tried to make it but yesterday at our local Vietnamese grocery store, I picked up a pack of beef short ribs to add to the marrow bones I found at the butcher’s across the street from the frame shop I visited (that’s another story.)

So today, since it’s a Sunday, the sun brightening the day outdoors, I Read the rest of this entry »

January 1, 2013

a birthday place (cont.) . . .

This photo gallery of our Truro stay is kindly provided by C. our wonderful chronicler of family gatherings. . . thanks, Cait!

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January 1, 2013

a birthday place . . .

My birthday comes a few days after Christmas every year. Because 2012 happened to be a milestone year for me, we found a place on the ocean in Truro on the Cape and our family gathered for a few days to visit, cook meals for each other and walk on the beach right outside our door.

M. put together snowflake garlands and C. helped her place paper red cardinals hopping around tiny white lights set in mason jars along the window sills making the place festive and elegant. Each took turns cooking for the rest of us; then another pair cleaned up afterwards. It worked out great with meals of shabu shabu, chap jae, ham and pea soup, ham sandwiches, delectable cheeses, huge salads with pears, pomegranate seeds and maple syrup laced dressing.

I took breakfast duty each day, making stacks of french toast, light oatmeal bread dipped in beaten eggs laced with vanilla, fragrant in a large electric skillet, mounds of tender, scrambled eggs with chopped scallions, crisp bacon on the side. And lots of hot coffee.

G. and M. went to pick up the lobsters and cape scallops for my birthday dinner. Afterwards, we had M.’s homemade coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting lit with candles. On the last day, after packing and loading the cars, we sat down to one last round of eggs benedict, made with warmed ham on toasted whole grain and cheese bread topped with tender poached eggs and generous dollops of hollandaise sauce made with Meyer lemon.

Sand, wind, water, salt. Lots of it everywhere. Thoughtful gifts abounded, the most touching of all was a DVD with voiceovers and music made by my daughters and granddaughters, including the littlest one at the end (Josie at 27 months old) saying “hap-py birth-day, gram-my”. The DVD movie did not come across like a “this is your life” kind of tribute which always seems to me like a valedictory farewell (okay, now you can go and sit somewhere.) Instead, it was a light-hearted celebration with lots of humor, flowers and food, good times shared together. I noticed a favorite suede jacket that I wore in college and wondered where it went to. There were comments from my blog too and a parade of the countries readers originate from, set to the “Star Wars” opening trumpet theme.

All in all, for an introverted, reclusive worrywart person and mother, the thoughtfulness and affection shared by everyone during this birthday holiday made us feel happy and content, especially me. And Josie’s innocent joyfulness at being near the ocean said it all: “O-cean! O-cean! SO Happy!” We are lucky to have such a wonderful family. And my thanks go to each and everyone who made this birthday holiday so meaningful and full of love.

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December 21, 2012

popping over . . .

It’s really amazing what you can learn by watching YouTube clips. I can see now how learning from watching a “show-and-tell”video is so much accessible and easier to grasp than merely reading recipes, for example. Our Christmas Dinner is on the English side this year, roasting a filet of beef and yorkshire pudding. I’ve made yorkshire pudding before in a large skillet where you cut up the puffed up creation into wedges and serve with the slices of roast beef and pass the gravy around.

I’ve also made popovers which is a favorite in our family and they are heavenly to see and eat, with a little sweet butter and some honey.That is, when the popovers rise and when they don’t stick to the pan. I even have special “popover baking pans.” Okay, so many of you will know that yorkshire pudding is identical to popovers. The word “pudding” makes us think it’s, well, something different. But it isn’t.

Anyhow, I started looking at some Youtube clips yesterday for how to make yorkshire pudding. It was really interesting with home videos of elderly ladies in very plain kitchens throwing the ingredients together in an old plastic bowl, scraping it around, putting lard into the pans to heat up before filling with batter half way up the muffin tins. The results were small, flat, small, flat little yorkshire puddings. They seemed to be very pleased by this (small, flat) tradition in their family, though. I moved on to other cooks who put the four ingredients, flour, egg, salt and milk, always making a “well” in the flour before adding the egg; some beating up the egg before mixing with the flour but always in that order. One let the batter sit for an hour before baking but I wasn’t sure why.

All used some kind of shortening (lard, golden crisco, vegetable oil) to layer the bottom of their muffin tins which they heated to smoking hot in the oven before taking back out to pour the batter in the muffin cups halfway. On the fourth clip, some guy said he liked his puffed up so he poured his batter all the way to the rim. That made sense to me too. And his started to look like what we know as popovers.

So if you are still reading, I’ve arrived at the final and most definitive process to make what they call sky-high yorkshire pudding (or popovers) every time. And you know what, it’s really different, although there are still only the four ingredients. This lesson truly demonstrates that cooking is sheer chemistry, and that’s all. So here goes.

In the first place, this is the first demonstration that mixed up the milk and three eggs FIRST with a mixer. Then beat in an extra EGG WHITE (a la souffles and such.) So the guy is beating up the milk and eggs with a mixer incorporating lots of AIR, right? THEN, he adds the flour, but only in little bits so that it gets incorporated little by little into the batter. ALL of the other recipes instructed you to make a well in the flour, add the egg, beaten or not, and mix it together into a PASTE (translate: NOT airy.) Then add the salt and milk to it. The difference, shall we say, is night and day.

But there’s more. After this light, airy batter is well mixed, put it into a container with a spout in the refrigerator OVERNIGHT. Something must happen to the gluten in the flour during this standing step. The next day, heat up your muffin cups with the grease in it until smoking hot, stir your batter lightly to incorporate after resting, and quickly pour the batter to the TOP. Apparently, the temperature deferential between the smoking hot oil in the pan and the very cold batter that’s been sitting causes an EXPLOSION which results in huge popovers! Put them into the oven and do not open the door for 25-45 minutes depending upon how many you’re baking.

These babies are amazing–HUGE puffed up tops almost toppling over from their bases and they pop right out of the pan too (couldn’t resist that.)

So, I’m excited about trying this out for our dinner. I have every confidence that they will turn out to be sky-high too. If you’d like to watch that YouTube clip too, here it is.

Oh, and he forgets to tell you how much flour to use so there’s a footnote underneath. If you’re like me, you’ll have to Google the conversion from milliliters of milk and grams of flour. I already did it so I’m happy to share with you that it’s about a cup and a half of each when all is said and done.

Enjoy!

Postscript: I’m happy to report that the recipe here will work well, as long as: a) you don’t put in too much oil in the shallow muffin pans so that oil spills over into the bottom of your oven at high heat and “catch fire” (that’s right!) and b) you let them bake at high heat 425-450 degrees for 15-20 minutes until they pop but don’t take them out yet, turn the heat down to 350 and let them bake for about 15 minutes longer. On Christmas Eve, they popped hugely (and the grease spilled over) but I took them out too early and they immediately deflated into little wisps of nothing.

Tonight (New Year’s Eve,) I made them again without the fussiness of making the batter and letting it sit overnight although I did whisk two eggs and 1 cup milk together first and added 1 cup flour/pinch of salt in small amounts into the liquid and let the batter sit on the counter while waiting to bake. I heated the oven to 450 degrees, sprayed Pam in the cups along the sides and used my deep, cone-shaped popover pan instead of the shallow muffin pan. I put a teaspoon of oil in the bottom of each cup and let the pan heat up in the oven for 10 minutes. As a precaution, I lined a cookie sheet with some aluminum foil and placed it on the lower rack underneath where the popover pan would go. I took the hot pan out and filled the cups almost to the top (less 1/8 inch) and the batter filled five cups, not six.

The popovers popped with huge heads in about 15 minutes; I turned down the heat without opening the oven door and let them cook about 15 minutes longer so that the popovers would actually bake. When I took them out, they came out easily and ratained their shape, crunchy outside with a smooth popover-y inside. Smeared with sweet butter and honey, they were sublime. In fact, now that this popover recipe has been tweaked (to death!) I have come to think about how they might serve as the main attraction for any meal–with a nice fruit salad with greens or a cup of soup. Mostly, people fight over the popovers (we split the fifth one.) Hope this will inspire you to try it yourself. . . and that you will enjoy this simple, delectable treat with self-satisfied smiles between bites: that’s how we enjoyed them tonight!

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December 16, 2012

mince pies . . .

So today is Saturday and on a lighter note than in the past few posts, I’m going to describe the very cute mince pies that I made tonight. About a year ago, I was looking at the Williams Sonoma catalog which shows up pretty often. I usually avoid buying anything because the wares seem overpriced or meant for kitchens much more elaborate than mine. On that particular day though, I was taken by an appliance called the Breville pie maker. I had fantasies of making miniature chicken pot pies from leftovers, quick little apple pies for dessert from leftover fruit in the fridge.

I played around with it when it first arrived and then I put it on the back shelf in the pantry. I felt guilty about it a little bit but it wasn’t hundreds of dollars and I forgot about it. Over Thanksgiving, Read the rest of this entry »

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November 27, 2012

embracing change . . .

You know how we hear a lot about the concept of change? The only constant in life is change, etc. etc.? Some people are wary of change and do not welcome it because they’re happy with what they think is the status quo. I think of myself as liking change because I need and want a lot of stimulation, which is why I read so much and explore new topics, poring over books, listening to CDs by musicians that I hadn’t heard of up to now. All that new stuff to think about and consider.

Today, as I was going through my stacks of magazines as part of my Unhoarding Exercise, I came across a copy of “Shambhala Sun” a Buddhist journal with the phrase, “Embrace Change” on the front. I got around to reading the article this afternoon (which is why Unhoarding takes such a long Read the rest of this entry »

November 19, 2012

new normal . . .

the naked duck

This is Sunday before Thanksgiving, and usually, I will have done my food shopping for the week’s preparations: fresh turkey, not too big; a couple of pounds of chestnuts to roast, peel and add to a bread stuffing made with Pepperidge Farm herb breadcrumbs, Bell’s seasoning, fresh parsley, vidalia onions, chicken broth; potatoes to boil for mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon, peas and salad; pumpkin pie or some kind of harvest-like dessert.

So, today, I was in Whole Foods and noticed that beside the very expensive brined organic turkeys, were rows of Bell and Evans fresh duckling. Since it’s the two of us this year, I thought, well, why not have duckling instead? Peking Duck, to be exact. A simple meal with roasted duckling, carved with crispy pieces of golden brown skin, scallions, hoisin sauce smeared on homemade wrappers. When I brought up the idea with G., his face lit up and he nodded in agreement. And Read the rest of this entry »

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October 29, 2012

just in case . . .

People are predicting that “Sandy,” the perfect storm with the lowest pressure ever in combo with cold air coming from the north and warm gulf stream air entering from the south might become the biggest storm EVER. You know it’s serious when they shut down public transportation in New York City; evacuate people along coastal states, close schools and say you can work from home. Even the Court system in NYC will be closed today.

So, what I began doing when I woke up in the middle of the night around 3 a.m. was to start cooking the ten-pound ham that is not spiral-sliced, but an old fashioned, honest to goodness semi-cooked ham. I glazed it with Poupon mustard, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar on the outside. Baked it for almost three hours in a 325 degree oven while browning baby brussels sprouts in a skillet and steaming broccoli and cauliflower in another pan.

On the stove, I rinsed out the navy beans that had been soaking the day before, sauteed vidalia onion, carrots; put in a hambone from the freezer, adding spring water and chicken broth to make a hearty bean soup. There’s a head of lettuce and three asian pears for salad to offset the ham. Oatmeal bread and rolls should hold us for ham sandwiches or peanut butter too. There’s enough to share with family next store and tenants who live in the house.

In the freezer is a ten pound bag of ice which can go in a cooler to keep all this food chilled and safe to eat for a few days in case the power goes off.

While the vegetables were simmering, I brought in the wind chime that has sturdily kept going for almost ten years out on the back landing. And piled the flower pots together in the pantry too. There are a couple of Stanley tripod torches to give us light in case the electricity goes off. If it does, there’s always knitting or reading to do, and it will be a good test of how long we can live without being online!

So, this is about all I can think of to prepare for this impending storm. Maybe we won’t need it after all. Let’s hope so. I think it’s humbling to do what we can to prepare for this potential emergency, while recognizing that the magnitude of this storm (and its impact) rests completely in the hands of Mother Nature!

Afternote (31 Oct. 2012): Unlike many less fortunate, we were spared a power outage. So yesterday, slices of ham, vegetables, rolls, biscuits and soup went to family and friends. The ten pound bag of ice waits in the freezer for another day.

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September 24, 2012

staff of life . . .

Sometimes I can get roiling around in my head about deep life issues. That’s a sure sign to do something else, like cooking. The other day, I bought an oatmeal scone with maple glaze at a local bakery. It was one of the best things I ever ate. I looked it up online and sure enough there was a 1999 recipe for maple oatmeal scones by Ina Garten. As per usual with some of her recipes, the ingredients were so rich I couldn’t believe it: white flour, wheat flour, instant oats, a POUND of unsalted butter cut up into little bits, buttermilk, FOUR eggs, maple syrup.

Since C. was coming out for dinner and staying overnight, I thought it might be a nice treat to make the scones so we could have them with afternoon tea when she arrived. The recipe was a little tricky because, as with pie crusts, it’s important to incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients so that the result is little bits of butter still showing. I did this by carefully pulsing the flours with the cut up butter in my Cuisinart and it was perfect. What was harder to do was to mix the dry and the wet ingredients together because the bowl I was using wasn’t big enough to stir everything together. So, I ended up piling the dough onto a board with pastry paper on it and gently mixing it by hand. As you know, handling dough just toughens it (as in making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning) so I was careful just to turn it over, pressing it together gently to incorporate the dry with the sticky dough. I rolled the dough out and cut it with my old fluted round cutter and baked them in the oven. I made a maple syrup glaze, using less confectioners sugar and more syrup with a tiny bit of vanilla. Sprinkled the tops with oats as Ina’s recipe suggested.

When they were all done, I wasn’t sure it had been worth all that effort, but C. said later she thought they were one of the best things I’ve ever made (which is saying something since I cook a lot.) G. also gave them out to his family and a friend in need down the street. SHE called afterwards to thank him for the scones because they were “so delicious.” So okay, maybe I’ll make them again. The next time, I’ll use a larger SQUARE fluted cutter that I ordered on Amazon. We’ll have them when we get together over the holidays with fresh fruit salad, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese, greek yogurt pancakes with maple syrup. M. (C.’s sister) had sent us the recipe for the pancakes–and C. and I had them for breakfast on Sunday. They’re slightly tangy, super tender and out of this world!

Last week, I had also seen a recipe in a British magazine at Barnes and Noble for homemade ginger ale. It reminded me of the concept of making tisanes in England with scented geranium, lemon verbena and so on. The recipe required cooking equal proportions of honey, chopped up fresh ginger root and water, a half cup of each into a saucepan. I used more ginger root and sliced it up in very fine slivers. Boil for 15 minutes and then let cool. When ready to serve, use a pretty glass (these sweet hobnail tumblers are from Anthropologie,) fill with ice, spoon 3 tablespoons of the strained ginger syrup and stir together with very fizzy club soda. Top with fresh mint.

Although we were planning to have hot Lapsang Souchang tea with the scones, the afternoon was still pretty balmy so we opted for drinking the iced ginger ale with the scones. A nice combination as it turned out. So I thought I’d share these recipes with you today. Enjoy!

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Category: Food