mulberryshoots

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~ Mary Oliver
April 17, 2017

eggs benedict for dinner tonight! . . .

Yesterday on Easter, we enjoyed a nice ham, twice-baked potatoes and brussels sprouts with bacon brought by a friend. We had little chocolate cake bunnies with little sugar faces for dessert. 

Tonight, using a few slices of ham on toasted crumpets topped with poached eggs and homemade hollandaise sauce was a simple supper which is always so much pleasure after feasting for holidays! We sprinkled some truffle salt and cracked pepper on top and enjoyed a light, tasty meal. Along with it, we sipped on chilled Prosecco left over from last night’s dinner – and it was still fizzy! My daughter, C., showed me how placing a silver spoon stem into the open bottle of fizzy KEEPS it fizzy when refrigerated. Hurray!

 

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April 12, 2017

crabcakes!!!! . . .

I’ve been pretty disciplined about using up leftovers and cooking out of the freezer, fridge and pantry for quite awhile now. Today, I let loose and decided to treat ourselves to a dinner with homemade crabcakes, cole slaw and corn muffins.

There are lots of recipes online for making crabcakes. Trust me, some say you can’t make crabcakes without using Old Bay seasoning. Others argue about the type of crab (fresh is best and ours comes from Maine.) All kinds of fillers are proposed: celery, parsley, onion, shallots, green onion, bread crumbs, egg, mayonnaise, mustard, etc. etc. etc.

Here’s what I put together: fresh crabmeat, not shredded but kept in lump form while mixing; fresh breadcrumbs made this morning from leftover homemade oatmeal bread (I know this isn’t fair, but the bread was getting stale and whirred up great in the mini-processor.) I let the fresh crumbs sit out all morning on a cookie sheet to air/dry out and then stored it all in a plastic quart container. Chopped fresh parsley: sometimes dried parsley adds enough color, but real parsley has such a tangy fresh taste along with one chopped green onion, mostly white parts but some green. One egg, a dollop of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and a 1/4 of a teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning plus salt and pepper. Mixed it gently together to combine.

Because I’m going to fry these in the skillet in unsalted butter, I went ahead and made meatball size rounds and rolled them gently in more of the fresh oatmeal bread crumbs. I set them on parchment paper and put them into the fridge to chill for a half an hour. This will help them hold together better in the skillet and not fall apart (hope so, anyway!)

The cole slaw at the fish market is freshly made and we like it because it’s crispy without too much mayonnaise. I also mixed together some fresh cocktail sauce and horseradish (the old jars in the fridge just wouldn’t cut it with this fresh crabmeat splurge.) Mixed it up together and squeezed a little fresh lemon in it to lighten up the pungency of the sauce.

Grilled a corn muffin in the pan, buttered sides down and then prepared to cook the crabcakes right before we were going to sit down to eat. I heated up unsalted butter in a skillet and cooked the crabcakes slowly, turning them over and on their sides until golden brown.

We found the crabcakes to be tender, cooked through and crispy on the outside. The cocktail sauce was piquant but not overpowering; the coleslaw was bland and crunchy and the corn muffin rounded out this light Spring supper. Really delicious! Yum!

 

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April 8, 2017

cracked wheat bread today . . .

While I have been trying my hand at making plain white bread and oatmeal bread this week, I remembered a bakery in Concord, MA. where you can buy the best bread I’ve ever tasted: cracked wheat bread. The loaves are huge and the crumb is tender to the bite and crispy chewy when toasted. I love that bread!

So, I looked around for cracked wheat at the local market and there was none to be had. Amazon listed it for a hefty price and I found it on VitaCost website in the same brand at a fraction of the cost. It arrived yesterday and this morning, I’m starting a recipe for two loaves of cracked wheat bread.

The first step is to soak the cracked wheat in boiling water for an hour. Next comes proofing the yeast in water. The remaining wet ingredients include warm buttermilk (which I had in the fridge from making a yummy buttermilk bacon salad dressing,) honey and molasses. The dry ingredients include a 1 to 3 ratio of whole wheat flour and regular white flour.

As an aside, I’ve been borrowing bread baking books from the library down the street – including “Bouchon baking” by Thomas Keller, “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice,” “Flour, water, yeast, salt” and also reading bread recipes online. What I have taken away for myself is that a) I’m not going to become a perfectionist bread-maker; b) I’d like to make bread that’s delicious every so often; c) I don’t want to buy a mixer with a bread hook.

Even though I was ready to spring for a cute, red Mixmaster stand mixer with a dough hook for less than $100, it occurred to me this morning that I might be able to mix the dough similarly in my trusty Cuisinart! So, I did just that. I followed the recipe and pulsed it in my Cuisinart, especially running it for a couple of minutes once everything was incorporated. I could tell that the machine was okay but beginning to labor a little bit during the final mixing so I shut it off. Then, I scraped the dough out of it and kneaded it by hand, adding a sprinkle of white flour to make it less sticky and easier to handle. Oiled a bowl and set the ball of dough in it and covered it with plastic wrap. Then, I set it in a warmed oven (turned on and then off, leaving the oven light on) to rise for a couple of hours.

BTW, if you try the recipe that is highlighted above, I noticed that there was no mention of when to add the proofed yeast back in. I combined it with the warm buttermilk, molasses, honey, butter mixture before adding the rest of the white flour. I’m also curious to see if the molasses is overpowering because it’s pretty strong in the dough.

The kneaded and formed loaves rose again and were baked at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. I was relieved to see that this recipe’s photo showed a slightly deflated top similar to what my loaves have been looking like.

Footnote: Here’s a photo of the first slice from this loaf of bread. Apparently, my use of a Cuisinart to mix the dough worked out well – the crumb is exceptionally light and the bread has a uniform grain. It also tastes good too!

dinner plate with butter lettuce, avocado, honey crisp apple salad w/buttermilk bacon dressing – & cracked wheat bread

 

 

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April 6, 2017

crunchy noodles with chicken . . .

Here’s what we had for supper tonight: Twice-fried fresh noodles with chicken, broccoli & spinach

INGREDIENTS:

skinless/boneless chicken thighs (3) from Trader Joe’s

Korean barbecue sauce to marinate them in

Scallions, crushed garlic, fresh ginger root (chopped up to stir-fry)

Broccoli florets, trimmed and washed

Fresh spinach, washed and dried

Fresh Chinese wonton noodles (thicker than usual, parboiled and drained)

Cooking sherry and cornstarch (a smidge of each, mixed together to coat cut up chicken after marinade

STEPS:

Mid-afternoon, rinse and dry 3 boned/skinless chicken thighs. I froze the other 3 pieces for a similar stir fry down the road next week. Cut up into smaller pieces and coat with sherry/cornstarch mixture – not too much nor too thick.

Heat up skillet with thin layer of vegetable oil; add crushed garlic, scallions and ginger, being careful not to burn. Add chicken pieces and stir around until almost cooked. Set aside in a bowl for later.

Stir fry the broccoli with a little more garlic and green onions, stir and add a small splash of water, cover to ensure broccoli is cooked – the water will evaporate. Then add back the chicken and stir together until cooked. Put aside 2nd time. 

Clean out and dry the skillet – helps to have a non-stick pan large enough to put the parboiled noodles in. Heat the skillet and coat with vegetable oil. Place the noodles gently into the pan until it is covered. Cook over medium heat until you can see the crispy noodles when you lift up the noodles with a spatula. Slide the noodles onto the spatula and flip the whole thing over. Turn down the heat to crisp up this side and keep on low until ready to serve.

SERVING:

Re-warm the noodle pancake so that it is crisp – hold it slightly up to drain of any excess oil and place it into a serving plate. Turn the heat on medium high heat and saute the fresh spinach on the edges of the skillet, then scoop up the chicken and broccoli into the middle to heat thoroughly without too much sauce.

Spoon the spinach, chicken and broccoli on top of the noodles. Sit down and eat right away! Love the crunchy noodles!  

 

 

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April 5, 2017

orchids in the west window! . . .

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April 5, 2017

a quick (and healthy) lunch! . . .

The other day, I saw Martha Stewart on TV (yes, she’s still alive and kicking!) and she mentioned that sometimes when she comes home late at night, she’ll prepare a small green salad with sardines on top sprinkled with some fresh lemon juice.

Since I’m fond of sardines – especially the teeny tiny ones packed in two layers of a King Oscar brand tin, I thought I’d try it out for lunch today. This seemed like a good idea since we’ve been enjoying so much homemade oatmeal bread these days and I wanted to take a short break.

My salad consisted of some fresh butter lettuce, sliced radishes, vinaigrette dressing and a tin of tiny sardines layered on top, sprinkled with lemon juice.

It was quite tasty and satisfying!

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April 4, 2017

“cooking on a rainy afternoon . . . “

After lunch today, I mixed a batch of bread dough using Quaker Oats steel cut oatmeal. It’s a King Arthur “back of the bag” recipe and its ingredients are lukewarm whole milk, yeast, salt, melted butter, honey and flour in addition to the oatmeal. The shaggy dough felt really good as I kneaded it for about ten minutes. Then I turned on the oven light in our electric oven and set a greased bowl with the dough to rise for the early part of the afternoon.

After it rose the first time, I took the dough out, gently punched it down and kneaded a little more before shaping it into a loaf and letting it rise in a buttered bread pan until the top had risen almost two inches above the rim of the pan. Gingerly, I lifted it up and set it on the table while I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

The fragrant aroma of baking bread is one of its great pleasures, the anticipation of peeking through the (closed) oven door and waiting long enough to cut a slice, buttering it with Kerrygold unsalted butter. I’ve packed a small container of the coleslaw and when the bread is cool enough to slice, I’ll slice a third of a loaf for G. to take across the street for his brother and 98-year old mother who have their supper around 5:30 in the afternoon.

Nothing better on a rain-day and cooking out of the pantry and fridge! While Mother Nature’s rainfall takes the winter’s edge off my car in the driveway.

 

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April 4, 2017

cooking on a rainy morning . . .

It’s raining steadily today here in New England. I moved my car outside so that Mother Nature would give it a good rinse. Afterwards, I plan to mop it up with polishing cloths that I’m going to experiment with – you know, use the magic polishing cloth and one pass through will make it shiny and bright! Or howsomever. I thought I’d try this rather than going to the carwash.

A previous FB post reminded me of an interesting article by “Bon Appetit” about a restaurant Hillstone that serves basic American food but which many chefs like to frequent. One of the recipes that caught my eye was one for “Ding’s coleslaw.” Most of the time, I don’t make coleslaw from scratch because it was always easier to buy a container of it at the seafood store whose coleslaw was made fresh there and tasted pretty good – not too much dressing and finely sliced cabbage.

But today, I thought I’d try it because I had the ingredients on hand except for buttermilk.  I looked online to see what a substitute might be and added a little lemon juice to whole milk since I only needed a tablespoon of it for the recipe. In the fridge was a fresh half of a small head of cabbage, some leftover red cabbage that I had used for an asian noodle salad, half of a carrot, half of a honey crisp apple, some radishes and scallions. By the time I had shredded the cabbage, the bowl I was going to use was obviously too small. By the time I was ready to mix the dressing with the vegetables, it needed an even larger, shallower bowl to mix it together in order for the flavors to blend.

I tasted Ding’s dressing which included mayo, pickle relish, mustard, buttermilk, horseradish and sweetener (I used honey instead of sugar) and it was light, piquant and tasty. Poured the dressing on top of the cabbage and apple, radish, carrot mixture and mixed it gently together.

Wow! now I have a huge amount of tasty coleslaw from a motley bunch of vegetables that were in the fridge. I love it when this happens – a silk purse of a dish from a sow’s ear of tired produce in the fridge.

This afternoon, I’m planning to set up some oatmeal bread dough so that it will rise once and again, baking the loaves right before supper so they will be hot from the oven when we sit down to eat.

I watched Martha Stewart make a frittata on TV this weekend and am going to shred zucchini and onion to serve as the base and puff it under broiler after the bread comes out.

So with pantry and fridge ingredients, we’re going to dine like princelings and princesses tonight!  Or something like that!

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March 30, 2017

milk and honey homemade bread . . .

The other day, I saw a photo of thick slices of oven-toasted homemade bread  buttered for an English breakfast. Today, I also remembered the scrumptious loaves of bread I made awhile ago with milk and honey.

Here’s the original post with the recipe.

Because I didn’t have a lot of flour in the cupboard, (I had about 3 cups plus a little instead of 3.5 cups plus a little,) I reduced slightly the amount of liquid and other ingredients to accommodate for a smaller loaf. The first round of dough rose mid-morning in the oven, warmed by turning on the oven light. It’s amazing how much warmth that little thing gives off!

Once it rose the first time, I gently punched down the dough and kneaded it for a short time. Then, I formed a loaf: folding it over lengthwise and crosswise placing the loaf seams down into a buttered white porcelain bread pan, a favorite in my kitchen pantry. Covered it and let it rise in the oven again along with a pan of warm water.

For supper tonight,we’re having leftover Kobe ground beef made into meatballs with tomato sauce and thin spaghetti – a chunk of parmesan cheese to grate alongside. The fresh loaf of bread will still be warm when we sit down to eat.  LOVE the aroma of baking bread in the kitchen – G. will be happy when he arrives home tonight!

Yum!

 

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March 28, 2017

“cauliflower rice” . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My granddaughter mentioned how much she liked cauliflower rice but I’ve never tried it myself. This morning, G. came up stairs with a package of it that was left for us by our neighbor tenant who’s away for the week visiting her family in Georgia. Along with it were some small bella mushrooms and organic zucchini.

So tonight, I’ll rustle up some cauliflower fried rice with a bit of chopped Smithfield ham, onions, zucchini, mushrooms and the ‘rice’ along with some eggs and scallions. The secret ingredient is a dollop of soy sauce when everything has cooked together. Very fragrant!

I’ve also been planning to make a fresh wonton noodle soup in a rich broth I’d saved from poaching a chicken and soup made from winter melon and shitake mushrooms. I’ll boil the noodles, rinse them well and then slide them into the prepared broth. Some fresh watercress will go into the noodle broth just before serving. 

May be an odd combination for our supper, but that’s what I have on hand to cook tonight – and it will be tasty, I think. Hope so anyhow.

 

 

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