Chocolate custard - sort of

This is my attempt at making a custard for my family. Since hubby is allergic to milk it makes things challenging. Now I already made a vanilla custard with the tapioca starch the clerk at whole foods swore up and down was just like corn starch but so much better. Fail! Unless you like your custard to develop boba tea like qualities even after you strained it twice. So this time I stuck with old faithful. My box of maizena corn starch. The custard was fairly easy to make with coconut milk, the only thing that happened was I used way too much sugar since I wasn't using any recipe. I ended up having to make a plain custard the next day to blend in and cut the sweetness, but all in all, the kids were happy, the husband was happy, and I made a decent custard.

all the ingredients in a row

dump 'milk', sugar, and cocoa into a pot

capture young child to stir your mix over a warm stove

I like to mix my egg yolks and starch

then temper before adding to the pot and cooking until thick

strain well, you don't want any lumps

let cool, while stirring every 15 minutes or so to prevent a skin

chill at least an hour

feed to happy children

Mmm chocolate!

CSA week 9

Things are getting bigger. This week we all got fennel, a bag of potatoes and onions, braising greens, basil, and young leeks. I chose carrots over beets and cabbage over cauliflower since I need to make sauerkraut (more on that later). No fruit this week, I am hoping for some stone fruit next week.

we heart cabbage

What I made: Lacto-fermented sauerkraut, basil in pasta, roasted potatoes with leek and fennel bulb gratin, fennel stalks frozen for stock, fennel frond and basil pesto, carrots in kids tummies, potato salad with onions and fennel fronds, braised greens with quinoa.

Yummy rice

This rice was not originally named yummy rice. This is the name my kids gave to it the very first time I made it. Needless to say that when we make this, all plates are cleaned. You can make this with leftover takeout rice if you keep the other ingredients on hand, but since we are a party of five, we make rice from scratch every time. We like leftovers for lunch the next day.

The original recipe is from issue No. 11 of the Diner Journal, and Diner is hands down our favorite restaurant in NYC. That was where we went when we wanted a good meal that felt special without feeling extra fancy. Sure we ate at fancier places like Le Bernardin, Danube(RIP), Babbo, blah blah blah, but we always came back to Diner. Now I have always disliked fried rice and I have a thing about egg in dishes. It is always too much and everything tastes like eggs, but given that this recipe was from one of my favorite places, I gave it a try. I was not disappointed. I have modified the recipe to our tastes. I use peanut oil instead of olive oil, which makes things taste yummier, I gently set the eggs and fold them in so that everything doesn't taste egg-y, and I also add some asian inspired seasonings.

one pot of rice, one bunch of scallions chopped, and a boatload of toasted sesame seeds,
you can't see but there is probably 1/4 cup there

plus eggs, peanut oil, sugar, ume plum vinegar, and soy

I add the soy, vinegar, and sugar before the rice is done to help it infuse

once the rice is cooked, transfer it to a large non-stick skillet
and fry it in peanut oil to develop super crunch,
you need to turn it on medium and walk away,
come back in 7 minutes flip in sections, walk away again,
don't sit there and stir it, that won't work

once you achieve crunch add eggs to center and let set

then I add the scallions and sesame seeds on top of the eggs

I fold everything in gently till the egg is cooked thru - see egg bits are both yellow and white

serve as-is or with a healthy dollop of sambal

Enjoy!

Roasted veggies plus garlic

So last Tuesday I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner. Thankfully our CSA provided a nice selection to choose from. I just grabbed the root vegetables, peeled and cut them up in big chunks, threw them in a pan with salt and olive oil, roasted them at 400 for ~45 minutes, and we had a yummy dinner. Okay so I made some cous cous and some quorn nuggets for the kids. But I also needed some garlic and lo and behold I it was actually time to harvest our garlic.

Seriously easy to grow. It was growing wild in our neighbors yard and I asked and she told me the previous house owner had planted it because he was a big rose gardener and apparently they love to grow with each other (one of the few things roses actually like nearby). So I planted some garlic in our roses and some in the other part of the yard. Same soil, same sunlight, same water—the ones with the roses were twice a big. The fun thing is though, when you harvest take a few puny ones, break them up, drop a single clove back in the hole you just pulled from and voila you are done. Simplest thing ever.

csa vegetables

homegrown garlic

simple dinner

CSA week 8

Ah the weekly box of goodies. This week everyone got new potatoes, baby carrots, spring onions, lettuce, and broccoli. I picked collards over kale, what a surprise. We also got our first fruit share—a nice bag of bing cherries.

yay! fruit

What I made: Southern style collards (again, surprise), roasted vegetables (potatoes, onions, carrots, and 2 beets from last week) w/cous cous salad, sauteed broccoli, salad, and cherries right into the bellies.

Collards

I spent about four years of which were formative in North Carolina. My mom was able to get a break on college tuition because her dad was in the army there, or something like that. So we pulled up stake and lived in North Carolina from the time I was 5 until I was 9. It had a profound impact on me. I hate mosquitoes, humidity, and antebellum architecture. I love collards, hush puppies, and vinegary anything.

We have lots of family there since all my grandfather's side basically came over on the mayflower and built the town of greenville. I spent most of my non-school time with my great-grandmother while my mom was working or going to school. My great-grandmother grew up during the depression and so she cooked and canned all her food from her garden, her crab pots, the pigs they used to have, and anything else she could find. This recipe is my best recollection of what her collards tasted like. Except no fatback. Sorry Anmommy.

the basics

chop your onions and garlic

this is how to stem greens, hold the stem firmly

grab the leaf with a closed fist and pull off in a quick sweep

voila!

chop the smaller part of the stems, compost the thick part

saute stems in butter and oil with onions and garlic till softened

now how to quickly cut greens, stack 'em up and fold 'em

if they are thick you roll them

then a swift cut down the center and three chops on the bias and you are done

toss in the pot with vinegar, a little salt, and some red pepper flakes if you like the spice

cook until collards turn dark green, then let sit covered at least 10 minutes

enjoy with hot sauce

Go Tarheels!

Favas with mint

We discovered the magic of fava beans about 6 years ago and every year when they come in season I make this recipe. I have saved recipes for fava bean hummus, favas with tomatoes, and many more, but their season is so fleeting and this preparation is so tasty, we just don't do anything else with them. Granted it can seem tedious to have to double peel and cook the beans, but it is so worth it. And if you have kids, fun for them to. Wink.

 

simple ingredients for savory results

separate the 'beans' from the pods

blanch in boiling water to loosen outer skin

who needs an ice bath when your tap water comes from a glacier

make a small tear in the outer skin and pop the bean out

chop the mint and garlic

saute garlic, mint, and beans in olive oil until the garlic is just cooked thru
season with salt

serve at room temperature

Mmmm, mmm, good.

CSA week 7

The box was a little more full this week, but that might have been all the greens attached to the root vegetables. We all got spring onions, beets, turnips, basil, and broccoli. I picked arugula over lettuce. I tossed the turnip greens since they weren't so pretty, but the beet greens will be cooked into yummies. My kids were sad that there were no peas or shoots to eat, but they will be happy once I cook up what we have.

we like greens

What I made: Arugula salads, arugula/basil/cashew pesto, turnip and beet chips, sauteed broccoli, grilled onions, and sauteed greens

Rhubarb redux

See I told you I would make another rhubarb pie. And I even forgot to take pictures again. This time I remembered to take pictures of the beginning, but when it came time to roll the dough and fill the pie, I sort of forgot. See we went to the farmers market while the dough was chilling and ended up being out longer than expected. So when we got I home I was rushing to get the dough rolled to chill again so we could bake and cool the pie, so the kids would be able to eat it at least a few minutes before bedtime. We really were gone too long and I should have saved the pie for the next day. But when you tell your kids they are having pie, you had better give them pie if you want to live. =)

I had an a-ha moment when making this pie. See I know fruit pies are messy and I have put pans in the oven to catch the drip, but I always put them on the rack below. I am baking a pie again in two days that I have to pre-bake the crust for (my personal failure when it comes to pies) and I was reading that someone puts the pie on a pre-heated baking sheet to help the bottom cook faster and not be soggy. I haven't ever had issues with a soggy bottom, but I saw the immediate value in that I could rotate my pie mid-cook without all sorts of finagling trying to keep my potholders from ruining the crimped crust and I could pull the pie out easily to put on the pie ring. A-ha! Needless to say all my pies will be cooked on baking sheets from now on.

make your dough

chop your rhubarb - I like mixed sizes

macerate at least 3 hours in a 2:1 rhubarb to sugar ratio,
then add salt, lemon juice, and flour

forget to take pictures, roll out dough, chill, put in pan, crimp, add filling, and top

bake on a baking sheet - woo hoo!

pie's done

rapid cooling method, not recommended, but bed time is in an hour

as usual serve with vanilla ice cream or coconut bliss

I heart pie!