You are here: Home / 2010 / Archives for May 2010

Homemade Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Yogurt Salsa (Raita)

May 27, 2010 by 13 Comments

Welcome to part II of the series of component dishes (Part I, Candied Jalapenos, can be read here!)  to make the transcendent ‘Second to Naanwich’ that still has me obsessed almost two weeks after eating it. While you can definitely buy Greek yogurt from the store to complete this dish, the homemade variety is so much tastier and less expensive.  I encourage you all to try making it from scratch.

I am addicted to Greek yogurt.  But man-oh-Friday, is it ever an expensive habit.  I was buying cases of it through our local health food co-operative at a price that -while lower than grocery stores- was still painful to pay.  I needed a less expensive way to feed my habit and I found it.

Googling ‘homemade Greek yogurt’ yields a bunch of folks, bless ‘em all, who tell you the same thing.  Strain your yogurt and ‘voila!’ it’s Greek yogurt.  Okie dokie.  Easy enough.  So if you want a super fast homemade Greek yogurt, just strain yourself a quart of yogurt.  And that’s good in a pinch, but when you’re talking volume, that can still get expensive.  So.  Take it back one step further and make your own yogurt.  This is just as exciting from a stick-it-to-the-man viewpoint as homemade buttermilk. It’s not hard people.  Don’t fear the yogurt.

Unless you’ve been in a cave you’re probably at least minimally acquainted with the health benefits of yogurt by this point; the live and active cultures in the yogurt are like a magic bullet for intestinal health.* But don’t forget the calcium, magnesium, potassium, Vitamins B2 and B12 and protein.  Those are pretty handy to overall health, too.

*I’m sorry if you just lost your appetite reading the words ‘intestinal health’.  In my defense, as the mother of five boys ages twelve and under, I thought that was pretty restrained of me.  I could’ve said “It helps you poop regularly.”  Oh my gosh.  I’ve lost all sense of propriety. I need to hang out with girls more often.

Because I love you bigger than the bay, today’s post is a three-fer.  You get the recipe for Greek Yogurt made from scratch, but in the process, you also learn how to make ‘regular’ yogurt.  And you also get my favorite thing to do with Greek yogurt.  (Other than eating it straight with honey, making frozen yogurt, using it for dill dip, using it in place of sour cream, or turning it into tartar sauce…) Cucumber Yogurt Salsa.  This salsa is similar to a raita (an Indian and Pakistani condiment made to cool the palate) but it is made without what I think are key components of a honest-to-goodness raita (chiles, cumin, et al.) The red onion gives it the flavor punch I crave, but the dill and cucumber keep it cool and refreshing.  This is a crucial component to the Second to Naanwich (more information on the mythical Naanwich is here.)

I put Cucumber Yogurt Salsa on all sorts of things; burgers, sandwiches, vegetable sticks, spoons… Let your imagination run wild.  This is some good stuff.

So come on.  Make yourself some yogurt, I want y’all around for a while.  I like you.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Homemade Greek Yogurt (or regular yogurt)

Yield: About 4 cups of Greek yogurt

Ingredients:

  • 2 quarts whole, 2% or 1% milkfat milk
  • 4 Tablespoons yogurt with live and active cultures (store bought or less than 36 hour old homemade yogurt)

Heat the milk in a saucepan to 180°F.  If you don’t have a thermometer, don’t sweat it.  You can watch the milk.  When it gets lots of little bubbles around the edge but before it boils, you’re good to go.  It’ll look like this.

And if you happen to get a little warmer than that, don’t worry.  See this?

No one from the yogurt police came to have words with me.  My yogurt turned out just fine.  The important part is waiting for the milk to cool to the right temperature before adding the yogurt.  That nice lukewarm temperature encourages the beneficial bacteria to get cuddly and reproduce.  Anything too hot kills them.  So…

Cover the pan and cool to about 116°F.  Again, don’t panic if a thermometer isn’t handy.  Simply drip a couple drops of the milk on the inside of your wrist.  If it feels pleasant and slightly warmer than body temperature without feeling hot or uncomfortable you can proceed.  Remove about 2 cups of the warm milk to a small bowl and whisk in the yogurt until evenly combined.  Whisk that back into the pan of milk.  Pour into jars or a bowl.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a lid and place in a warm dry place at least six to eight hours or until thickened, overnight if necessary.  A good place for this is an oven that is off but has the interior light on. If you stop at this point, you have regular yogurt.  Simply refrigerate at this point if that’s what you want.

To make Greek yogurt,  place the yogurt in the refrigerator for four hours to firm it a little further and allow some of the whey to separate.  After four hours, line a colander with fine mesh cheesecloth or a clean tea towel.  Pour the yogurt into the colander.  You can either gather the corners of the towel and tie it before hanging it over your sink for 5 hours like this.

Or you can place the colander over a bowl and place in the refrigerator overnight to drain.

After draining to desired consistency, turn into a bowl.

Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use.

Cucumber Yogurt Salsa (Raita)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Greek yogurt
  • 1 medium sized cucumber, peeled and diced into small cubes
  • 1/2 of a small red onion, peeled and diced into small cubes
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon dried dill weed or 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
  • salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.  It is preferable to cover tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving, but this can be eaten immediately.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Component Foods, Food Preservation, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Snacks, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Candied Jalapenos

May 23, 2010 by 145 Comments

 

This last week, my baby brother Luke told me admiringly that I had finally done it.

“To which it do you refer?” I inquired.

“IT!” said Luke.

Luke was referring to this.

This sandwich blew my mind. It was the perfect sandwich. I do not use the phrase ‘perfect sandwich’ lightly. It is a very serious appellation to give a sandwich*. This one earned it.

*Could I possibly use the word ‘sandwich’ any more? There just doesn’t seem to be any way around it. And so I’d like every single English and composition teacher reading this to take a muscle relaxant right now to help them get through the rest of this post without cringing themselves into spasms.

Let me tell you what makes this bad boy so very bad*. The sandwich is built of naan brushed with ghee, tandoori style grilled chicken, cucumber and yogurt salsa, crunchy pickled onion rings and candied jalapenos. Un-bloody-believably delicious. The Evil Genius declared it to be ‘A Second-to-Naanwich’.

*Bad in a good way. As in phat. Not fat. It’s totally fly. I should probably stop now. Fo shizzle.

Every single component of this sandwich was made from scratch. Okay, so I didn’t grow the lettuce greens, spices or the chicken, but shy of that, all homemade. And over the next few posts, I will give you the recipes to make each component needed to reproduce this amazing sandwich in your own kitchen.

Even though this sandwich alone is worth the work of making each of these building blocks, you’re not just canning, yogurt, bread, and grilling for one purpose. Each of the ingredients can be used for multiple recipes. This is a springboard recipe. Once you’ve mastered each component, the world is your oyster. Are you ready for the first part? Here we go!

We’re starting with Candied Jalapenos for a very good reason. After being made, they need to sit for at least two weeks before you crack open the jar to start eating them. And by need, I mean it’s strictly optional, but you’ll be glad that you did. The flavors need time to meld and marry.

Candied Jalapenos. Ah. There’s a story here. A couple months ago, my friend Katie casually mentioned eating a sandwich made with candied jalapenos. She was singing the praises of what she described as an addictive jar of goodies. Then she said the magic words, “I wish I could figure out how to make these at home.” By this point, you know me enough to know what affect that statement has on me, right?  I quizzed her on the texture, flavor, and appearance of the jalapeno rings. I begged for photographs. I had her send me a picture of the ingredient list on the label. I asked her to describe the flavor to the very best of her food blogging abilities. She was game. She provided all the information and even sent a link to a recipe that she thought looked like it would come close to the benchmark for her.

After carefully examining close to thirty recipes on candied jalapenos (who KNEW there were so many people candying jalapenos?) I called my local Cooperative Extension office to pick the brain of their home food preservation specialists. Since jalapenos are a low-acid food, some precautions need to be taken when canning them. You have two choices for safely canning peppers of any kind; you can pressure can them or you can acidify (i.e. add vinegar, lemon juice, etc…) the liquid in which you pack the peck of pickled peppers.

I opted for acidifying the pepper liquid because I wanted to maintain some of the texture of the peppers through the process.  Pressure canning these would turn them to flavorful mush.  The result was gobsmackingly, head-spinningly, brain-addlingly delicious.  Sweet, spicy and savory, candied jalapeno rings are way too easy to eat on just about everything.  I’ve stashed them in sandwiches, chopped them up on baked beans, tucked them into tacos, used the syrup to brush meat on the grill, perched a couple rings on top of a cream cheese laden cracker and all sorts of other evil things.

For such a simple thing to can, these pack tons of flavor.  You’re going to want to make as many of these as you possibly can simultaneously, because once that first jar is cracked open you’re not going to be able to stop eating them.  And I mean it.

Hey!  Don’t forget to come back over the next few days to get the other components to my Second-to-Naanwich.  You will love me.  That’s a promise.

Candied Jalapenos

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Yield: About 9 half-pint jars of Candied Jalapenos plus additional jalapeno syrup.

Ingredients:

  • 3 pounds fresh, firm, jalapeno peppers, washed
  • 2 cups cider vinegar
  • 6 cups white granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
  • 3 teaspoons granulated garlic
  • 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Wearing gloves, remove the stems from all of the jalapeno peppers.  The easiest way to do this is to slice a small disc off of the stem-end along with the stem.  Discard the stems.

Slice the peppers into uniform 1/8-1/4 inch rounds.  Set aside.

In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the upper rim of the jar.

Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil.  Boil hard for 6 minutes.

Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices to within 1/4-inch of the rim.  Insert a cooking chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air.  Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary.  Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on new, two-piece lids to finger-tip tightness.

*If you have leftover syrup, and it is likely that you will, you may can it in half-pint or pint jars, too.  It’s wonderful brushed on meat on the grill or added to potato salad or, or, or…  In short, don’t toss it out!

Place jars in a canner, cover with water by 2-inches.  Bring the water to a full rolling boil.  When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints.  When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack.  Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours.  When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth then label.

Allow to mellow for at least two weeks, but preferably a month before eating. Or don’t.  I won’t tell!

 

 

 

4.9 from 19 reviews

Print
Candied Jalapenos
Author: 
Recipe type: Canning, Condiment, Ingredient
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 32
 

There aren’t words that exist to describe how addictive these little savoury, sweet, spicy, crunchy, garlicky pickled jalapeno rounds are. Put them on sandwiches, tacos, rice or bake them into cornbread. You’ll need more and more!
Ingredients
  • 3 pounds fresh, firm, jalapeno peppers, washed
  • 2 cups cider vinegar
  • 6 cups white granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric
  • ½ teaspoon celery seed
  • 3 teaspoons granulated garlic
  • 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Instructions
  1. Wearing gloves, remove the stems from all of the jalapeno peppers. The easiest way to do this is to slice a small disc off of the stem-end along with the stem. Discard the stems.
  2. Slice the peppers into uniform ⅛-1/4 inch rounds. Set aside.
  3. In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within ¼ inch of the upper rim of the jar. Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes.
  4. Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a cooking chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on new, two-piece lids to finger-tip tightness.
  5. *If you have leftover syrup, and it is likely that you will, you may can it in half-pint or pint jars, too. It’s wonderful brushed on meat on the grill or added to potato salad or, or, or… In short, don’t toss it out!
  6. Place jars in a canner, cover with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack. Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth then label.
  7. Allow to mellow for at least two weeks, but preferably a month before eating. Or don’t. I won’t tell!

Notes
I know this sounds crazy, but double this recipe. People will beg you for jars of this and get surly if you say no. Just. Trust. Me.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast Foods, Camping Food, Canning, Component Foods, Food Preservation, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Canned Barbecue Beans (El Pollo Loco BBQ Black Beans clone)

May 18, 2010 by 22 Comments

If I live to be a thousand years old I will never exhaust the possibilities offered by beans.  And what is there not to like about beans? They are- all at once- so inexpensive, so nutritious, so easy to store, so delicious, so versatile.

If you’ve been with me here at Foodie With Family for a while you’re pretty familiar with my adoration of beans.  They’re a quick, filling, el-cheapo way to feed a growing family.

“Quick?  Beans? Well, surely you aren’t making them from the dried state,” sayeth the doubting crowd.  Ah, but yes.  Yes, I am.  And here is where this post morphs from singing the praises of beans to evangelizing about canning.  Pressure canning, specifically.  And this requires a diversion of some length from beans…

Even if you were raised in a family who canned a great deal of food (as I was) chances are you heard something like this regarding pressure canning, “Pressure canners are DANGEROUS!  My Aunt Bertha had one explode on her once.  She leapt in front of it to protect the baby who was walking through the kitchen. They had to pull shrapnel from her neck.  Just missed the jugular.”  (The preceding cautionary tale was an amalgam of the pressure-canning horror stories from my own family members and friends.)  The truth is that pressure canners were dangerous.

The operative word here is ‘were’.  The reason so many of us have heirloom pressure canner tales of gore from ages of yore is because there were so many of them that actually exploded. But there is a whole new generation of pressure canners on the market now.  They have ratcheting, locking lids with metal-to-metal seals instead of  the inferior rubber gasket seals and their disturbing likelihood to warp, crack or otherwise deteriorate.

The Evil Genius has inspected Carol (Yes, my pressure canner has a name.  Don’t you name your appliances?) and pronounced her to be the domestic equivalent of a small-scale industrial sterilizer.  (And the man ought to know, he stares at/operates/programs/troubleshoots the real thing all day long every day. If the fellow who sits in front of the blast window on an industrial sterilizer waiting for little glass vials to explode says it’s safe, I think you can take his word for it.  And since I’m incapable of remaining on topic for more than three sentences, let me just ask one thing.  Does anyone else find it amusing that a man who is clearly NOT sterile [I remind you we had five sons in nine years] specializes in sterilizers?)

Hello?

Is anyone out there?

“Get back on topic already!”

I can take a hint…

Yes, well.  Here’s where I was going with this.  Pressure canning is very safe now.  Provided you use a new model pressure canner and follow the safety instructions.  And don’t let Aunt Bertha near it.  Just saying.

As for which pressure canner to use, I prefer this beauty:

 

This is the second to the largest model made by the Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry.  Yes, it’s a little more expensive than its smaller siblings or cheap knock-offs made by other companies, but it can hold and process fourteen quarts simultaneously.  Come on!  That’s seriously amazing.  That means that it twice as efficient as models that hold seven quarts.  And it can double as a big old boiling water canner.  There’s no boiling water canner on earth that can do double duty like Carol.

I have major warm fuzzies for this company.  When I broke my gauge (read: my fault completely.  I didn’t read the directions.) they replaced it –free of charge- even after I confessed what happened to it.  They sent it via Priority Mail.  Did I mention they sent it for free?  As in gratis?  I declared my love for them over the phone.  I think they’re used to it. But we were talking about beans, weren’t we?

Ah yes, these beans.

As if Facebook wasn’t a giant enough time hoover for me, I recently discovered the existence of the fabulous and aptly named ‘Canning’ group.  In this group was a picture of a batch of barbecue beans one member had made. The original recipe described them as being a clone of El Pollo Loco’s  BBQ Black Beans.  Having never been to an El  Pollo Loco, I had no idea what that meant.  One look at the recipe, though, and I knew I had to try it.  The method was so simple.  And the payoff was huge.

The hardest part of the whole project was waiting two weeks after processing to try them. Their hermetically sealed jars beckoned from their shelf in the basement, “Eat me!”

And boy, oh boy, these beans are good.  There is no hint at all of the paltry ten minutes of hands-on time (well, alright, twenty minutes if you count wiping and labeling the jars.) that went into creating this masterpiece. Smoky, spicy, saucy- they taste like beans that have baked for hours upon hours in the oven rather than beans poured from a jar that sat in the basement.  These beans alone are reason enough to justify the price of a new pressure canner even if they’re the only thing you ever make in it. How can that possibly be?

Let me paint you a little mental picture.  Let’s say, hypothetically, that you have five sons.  (Could happen, you know…) And let’s say that two of them are in a play; rehearsal is on Tuesday and the show is on Thursday, a column due Wednesday, paperwork to fill out at the bank on Thursday morning, a house full of company coming for the weekend on Friday and they’re planning on eating with you.  Right.  So, where in there are you going to find time to make a delicious and filling dinner for your company?  Try this one on for size.  Throw on a pot of rice.  Open and reheat a couple jars of Canned Barbecue Beans.  Put a couple links of your favorite sausage on the grill (Kielbasa, smoked sausage, link-chorizo, what-have-you…) and toss together a salad. Fluff the rice, top with the beans and sausage and serve with a salad and something icy cold to drink.

But hang on. It’s cheap, people!  It’s dirt cheap!  You can’t get food much cheaper than this, and you certainly can’t buy food of this quality for anywhere near this little in any store. And more banging of the drum… it’s so very good for you.  Fiber, vitamins, minerals, no funky preservatives or additives.  It’s great food the way food was intended to be.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, with no photos and sidebars, click here!

Canned Barbecue Beans

adapted from Creative Canning and Mary Kay Craig

  • 1 pound (or slightly more) black beans or a mix of pinto and black beans, rinsed, picked over and soaked 8 hours or overnight
  • 2 onions, peeled and small
  • 5 small cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 1/2 cups barbecue sauce (I used my favorite homemade Kansas City style sauce, but bottled sauce will do the job in a pinch.)
  • 2-3 drops liquid smoke per pint jar
  • 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle powder per pint jar, to taste, or 1/2 of a fresh jalapeno, minced, per pint jar.

After the beans have soaked overnight, drain and rinse them.  What you see below is mixture of black beans and pinto beans that is approximately equal by weight.

Divide the beans between five clean pint jars. The beans should fill the jars about halfway.  Divide the onions and minced garlic evenly between the jars.

Add the chipotle powder (or minced jalapenos) and liquid smoke to each jar.

Add 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce to each jar. Notice how the pinto beans have been stained by the black beans?  That’s just inevitable.  Don’t let it worry you.

Then add clean, fresh water to the jars to within an inch of the top rim.  Insert a chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times per jar to release any trapped air bubbles.

Adjust the liquid if needed to maintain one-inch of clearance  from the upper rim.  Wipe the rims, add new two-piece lids and process, according to your canner’s manufacturer’s recommendations, at 15 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes.

How is that possible that you don’t have to cook the beans first? Pressure canning is more than just efficient, it’s convenient.  As you’re processing the jars, you’re also cooking the beans inside the jars.  It’s like doing a little bit of kitchen magic.

And now comes the tricky part.   You have to wait at least two weeks for the beans to soak up the liquid in the jar.  You could even wait four weeks for the ultimate experience, if you can stand it.  You’ll be making another batch as soon as you open up that first jar, though.  I guarantee you that!

P.S.  There was a really neat phenomenon that happened with these jars.  Because you form a vacuum inside the jars (by design) when pressure canning, the liquid inside the jars can continue to boil long after they’re removed from the canner.  One jar’s contents boiled for thirty-five minutes after it was sitting on the cooling rack!  The Evil Genius assures me that this is perfectly normal and safe.

Filed Under: Beans, Camping Food, Canning, Component Foods, Food Preservation, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , ,

Celery Soda

May 11, 2010 by 20 Comments

I have to admit that Celery Soda is not exactly a normal sounding recipe.  While watching Alton Brown whip together this recipe on Good Eats, my first thought was, “Celery WHAT?”  My incredulity notwithstanding, the idea took hold.

And boy did it ever take hold.  My brain kept trying to imagine how a syrup steeped with celery seeds would taste.  It’s not that it was a huge investment in time, resources or money.  It was just two measly tablespoons of celery seed, two cups of sugar and a cup of water. I enjoyed tossing around the idea of the soda almost more than I wanted to make it.  But make it I did.

And I could kick myself for waiting so long.

It’s not good.

It’s great.

It’s more complex than I ever imagined it to be.  Trying to nail down the flavors for description is like trying to get boys into the bath tub.  In a word?  Elusive.  Two words?  Elusive and slippery.  Every time you think you have it it evades you.  But I’ll try.  For you all, I’ll try.

The first impression is not of the sweetness, although it’s right there; your first sense of the syrup is the light smell of celery.  It’s not quite identifiable as celery; it’s a fresh, herbal scent.  And it smells more of celery than it tastes of it.  That light, fresh, herbal taste  is present, but if you didn’t know it was made from celery seed you might not be able to call it.  The biggest ‘A-ha!” moment from the whole experience is that the subtle tongue-tingling feeling that you get when you eat celery is there when you sip the syrup mixed with soda water.  Even that is more of a lower case “Is this celery?” than it is a “Hey!  Celery!”

What is not elusive and slippery about this is how refreshing it is.  My word.  A tall glass of this on a hot day and the world will melt away while you stay cool.  Not as cool as a cucumber but as cool as celery. It cools you on a cellular level.  This is going to be my secret weapon during the dog days this summer.  That is, if we ever get dog days…

According to Alton Brown, the celery syrup in this recipe is invaluable in mixing cocktails.  Feel free to wing it.  Let me know if you come up with something wild and wacky and mixological.  Maybe you’ll invent the newest cocktail craze.  Could happen.  All because of this syrup.

I probably don’t need to tell you this, but I will anyway; this is so much better for you than most off-the-shelf sodas you can buy.  And it’s almost sinfully less expensive than the fancy-pants gourmet and all-natural sodas that are available.  We’re talking about pennies per glass here.  No funky additives, no High Fructose Corn Syrup, no wacky extracts or bizarro unpronounceable ingredients.  Okay, some might argue that Celery Soda is -at the very least- unusual or exotic, but it’s refreshing and really dadburned good!

Psst.   There’s one other thing.  But it’s for adults-only.  I’ve been told by a reliable source that celery (in all it’s forms) has some potent aphrodisiac effects;  so use with caution.  Or without.  Wink wink.

Now you might print this one and  put it in the pile of recipes to try or file it away or bookmark it.  I’m all about that.  But don’t let the hot months get away from you before you try this.

Celery Soda

Scroll to the bottom of this post for an easy print version of this recipe.

from Alton Brown

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup of water
  • 2 Tablespoons of freshly crushed (lightly) celery seed
  • chilled unflavored seltzer or soda water

Stir the sugar and water together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the celery seeds.  Cover the pan and steep, off of the hot burner, for one hour.

After an hour, it is time to strain.  Line a fine-mesh sieve or colander with dampened fine cheesecloth or coffee filters.  Pour the syrup into the strainer.  If you need to do this in stages, do so, but try not to overflow your cheesecloth or coffee filters as this will allow celery seeds into the syrup.

That wouldn’t be a disaster, but it would at a possibly undesirable textural element to your syrup.  Pour the syrup into a jar, fit on a tight lid and chill completely before use.

To mix a soda:

Pour 2 Tablespoons of chilled syrup into a tall glass with about 1/4 cup of chilled seltzer or soda water.  Stir well to combine so that the syrup is fully integrated into the soda.  Add ice to the glass and fill the rest of the glass with more chilled soda.  Serve immediately.  Ah!

Store unused syrup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to six months.  That’s right!  It lasts for six whole months!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Print
Celery Soda
Author: 
Recipe type: Homemade Soda, Flavoured Syrup
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 12
 

Refreshing, unique, and healthy, an icy glass of this unusual sounding homemade soda really hits the spot on steamy summer days. Serve this alongside grilled hot dogs or hamburgers and potato salad instead of a cola or sweet soda and you will never go back!
Ingredients
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup of water
  • 2 Tablespoons of freshly crushed (lightly) celery seed
  • chilled unflavored seltzer or soda water

Instructions
To Make the Syrup:
  1. Stir the sugar and water together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved.
  2. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the celery seeds.
  3. Cover the pan and steep, off of the hot burner, for one hour.
  4. After an hour, it is time to strain. Line a fine-mesh sieve or colander with dampened fine cheesecloth or coffee filters.
  5. Pour the syrup into the strainer. If you need to do this in stages, do so, but try not to overflow your cheesecloth or coffee filters as this will allow celery seeds into the syrup.
  6. Pour the syrup into a jar, fit on a tight lid and chill completely before use.
To Serve as Soda:
  1. Pour 2 Tablespoons of chilled syrup into a tall glass with about ¼ cup of chilled seltzer or soda water.
  2. Stir well to combine so that the syrup is fully integrated into the soda.
  3. Add ice to the glass and fill the rest of the glass with more chilled soda.
  4. Serve immediately. Ah!

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Beverages, Component Foods, Desserts, Gifts, Healthy Foods, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , ,

Vanilla Bean Cardamom Pound Cake with Apples in Caramel Sauce

May 6, 2010 by 4 Comments

I’m going to warn you right now.  The cake is made with a pound (A POUND, PEOPLE!) of butter, nine eggs, a pound of sugar and a pound of flour. Then the cake is sliced, spread with yet more butter and griddle fried. It’s addictive.  And it’s swimming in caramel.  And it’s topped with crème fraîche. This is not low-fat or low-calorie.  At all. On any planet. But I don’t care because it left The Evil Genius speechless.  All he could do was make big, pleading eyes and gesture toward it with his fork.  Yes, this is the same husband who is on a diet.  Um.  Hang on a second. I’m not mean.  I didn’t do this to tempt him; we had company that we hadn’t seen in a long time and I wanted to give them a ‘wow’ dessert. He didn’t want them to eat alone. *

*”Because we all know there’s nothing sadder than someone who eats alone…” Right.  The man’s been on a diet for a month.  He wanted a piece of pound cake.  Trust me when I tell you that you can’t say ‘no’ when you smell a slab of this frying in butter on the griddle.  It’s not humanly possible.

He finished licking his plate (subtly, of course) and sidled back into the kitchen.  When I looked back at him he was halfway through another serving and groaning happily.  No shame.  No shame, I tell you.  (He’s awfully cute when he’s shameless…)

But you’ve been warned.  Now let me tell you why this is so absolutely addictive.

First, is the fine-textured, rich vanilla pound cake delicately scented with cardamom.  We’re about to move from painfully delicious territory to downright evil with a buttery, creamy caramel sauce that simmers away with paper thin slices of tart apples.  What we do next is nearly criminal.  One inch thick slices of the pound cake are buttered on one side and thrown on a hot griddle to fry.  When they’re golden brown with little flecks of caramelized bits, the cake is slid onto a plate, fried side up, to be topped with the buttery caramel and apple slices then crowned with crème fraîche.  Can you handle that? Because that is some serious dessert, my friends.

One final word of caution.  Make this when you have friends with large appetites dining with you.  Otherwise you just might find yourself eating it for breakfast.  Not that that’s a bad thing…

This is a multi-step recipe, but never fear.  I’m going to walk you through each little step needed to whip up this little beauty.  Each step is simple, but it’s important to hit each one!

For a photo-free, printer friendly version of this recipe minus my story about tempting my husband beyond his ability to resist, click here!

Vanilla Bean Cardamom Pound Cake with Apples in Caramel Sauce

Ingredients for the Pound Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart Living):

  • 1 pound all-purpose flour (3-1/4 cups)
  • 14 ounces (2 cups) granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon coarse salt
  • 1 pound softened unsalted butter (4 sticks)
  • 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  • 9 large, room-temperature eggs
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Ingredients for the Apples in Caramel Sauce:

  • 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 4 medium sized tart apples, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Also needed:

  • additional softened butter for frying
  • crème fraîche for garnishing

To Prepare the Cakes:

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar.  Set aside.

Add the butter to the bowl of your stand mixer (or use a separate large mixing bowl with a hand mixer).  Use the butter wrappers to liberally grease two five-by-nine inch loaf pans.  Cream the butter and sugar on high speed until it is pale and fluffy.  This is going to take a while, but don’t skip this step.  It’ll take about 8 minutes.   Scrape down the bowl.

Use the dull edge of a knife to scrape the ‘caviar’ from the vanilla bean.  Add to the butter along with the cardamom.  Beat on high speed again for an additional minute.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl again.  Add two eggs to the butter and sugar mixture and beat well.  Scrape down the bowl then add another two eggs and beat well.  Scrape down the bowl again and repeat with two more eggs.  After scraping down the bowl, add the final egg and beat well on high to make sure your mixture is even.

Reduce the mixer’s speed to low and add the flour in four batches, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the bowl before adding more.

Divide the batter as evenly as possible between the two loaf pans.  Tap the pans several times each to help work out air bubbles then smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake for about 60-65 minutes, or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Let the cakes cool in the pan for half an hour before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.  While the cake is cooling, prepare the caramel sauce.

To Prepare the Apples in Caramel Sauce:

In a two-and-a-half quart saucepan, melt the butter together with the two sugars over low heat.  When the butter is completely melted, raise the heat to medium high and bring the mixture to a boil.  Boil hard for exactly four minutes.  Now carefully pour the heavy cream into the pan.  It will splutter and splash and boil madly, so do this carefully!  As soon as it is in, whisk until combined and add the thin slices of apple.  Lower heat to medium-low and partially cover the pan.  Let the mixture come back to a simmer.  Allow it to cook at a bare simmer for 3 minutes, or until the apple slices are tender but not mushy.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

To Plate your Magnificent Dessert:

Slice the pound cake into one-inch slices.  Butter one side of each slice.  Fry on a hot griddle until the underside of the cake is golden brown with some caramelized bits.  Transfer, fried side up, to a dessert plate.  Use a spoon to scoop apples and caramel sauce over the hot pound cake.  Top with a dollop of crème fraîche and serve while still warm.

Prepare to be adored.

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Desserts, Holiday Food, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , ,

Ham and Cheese Bites

May 4, 2010 by 15 Comments

This past weekend I officially became my mother.

If you’ve been reading me for a while, you’re aware that I am the eldest child in a large family that includes a baby sister.  This baby sister of mine is still in high school.  Sadly, she is not hopelessly stupid.  No, she’s in high school because she’s younger than I am (*cough* much younger *cough*).  And I might’ve mentioned that my Mom is fun before, right? Well, Mom throws massive parties for my little sister.  Loads of teenage girls and food and games at her house.  And birthdays?  Whoah.  There have been years where she’s allowed Airlia to have eight or ten girls sleep over.  She did this for me and for each and every one of my siblings. And for this, I mocked my Mom mercilessly.

“Geez, Mom!  Why can’t you say no?  You’re going to be exhausted!  Do they even appreciate everything you do? You’re making them WHAT to eat?  Holy Cow!”

And Mom would respond with a smile and a shrug and say, “I like it!”

~~~   ~~~   ~~~

Last week the boys were bemoaning the fact that they hadn’t been able to get together with their friends as much as usual.  Before I knew what I was doing her words popped out of my mouth, “Hey!  Why don’t you each invite a couple friends over on Saturday and I’ll make pizza!  It’ll be fun!”  That last sentence barely got through my lips before I clamped my hands over my mouth.  But it was already too late.  In the time it took me to pick myself up off the floor they had each invited a couple friends.  How many?  I really had no idea.

A quick glance at the calendar showed me that I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for that morning.  “Guys?  Hey guys?  Could you come here for a second?” I called, thinking I still had time to back out…  Five bright, shining faces turned toward me… “Um, never mind…” I mumbled.  I could get the blood work done, do the grocery shopping, come home and make pizza for a crowd before three, right?

Saturday morning dawned and I rolled myself out of bed to get to the doctor’s office right as they opened.  Several vials of blood and a “WOW!  I’ve never seen anybody bruise like YOU before!” from the phlebotomist later, I hurried toward the grocery store.  I tarried a little looking over packages, stocked up in the meat department, grabbed mozzarella and extra Bandaids and headed for the register.  And it was there I realized I didn’t have my debit card.  “No problem!” said I to self. “I’ll just use a check.”  I was out of checks.

I zoned out for a moment or two then snapped back into gear.  I asked the clerk to put my cart in the walk-in while I ran to the bank.  She obliged and I burned rubber.  The kind ladies at the bank printed out a check or two for me and I retraced my trail back to the store.  They retrieved my cart while I wrote out the check.  The cashier ran the check through the little machine.  Then she ran it through again.  Then againandagainandagainandagainandagain.  “Hmmm, it doesn’t look like it’s working,” said the clerk.  She beckoned for the head cashier who repeated the againandagainandagain performance and then also announced that it wasn’t working.  They called the manager over the PA system. *

*Important sidebar:  Have you ever noticed that some people have no idea how to use Public Address Systems?  They labour under the misconception that you must French kiss the microphone for it to work.  What she actually said was, “Manager on three. Three?  Manager needed on three.  Three.” Why she needed to repeat the check-out aisle number was beyond me. Between her awkward phrasing and the fact that the microphone was practically down her throat, it ended up sounding like, “Manager I pee-pee?  Manager need egg. I pee-pee.”  But I digress…

God love him, that manager got there as quickly as he could, but it still took him a while.  And he too ran the check through the machine several times before asking, “Was this transaction suspended?  You can’t pay with a check if the transaction has been suspended.”  He offered  to void every item in my cart and re-ring it so I could use my check.  Thirty minutes later, I exited the store with my groceries and went home as quickly as the speed limit would allow.  On the drive home, I called my sister and recounted what I had done that morning and told her about the upcoming party.

“Ha!” said my sympathetic sister, Jessamine. “You’re just like Mom!  You and a party?  You don’t know how many are coming?  You. Are. Exactly. Like. Mom!”

I thoughtfully responded, “No I’m not!  Mom always plans games.  I didn’t plan any games!”

~~~   ~~~   ~~~

So to recap, I had a large-ish blood draw that morning, messed up by not having a debit card or checks with me to pay for crucial ingredients for that afternoon’s pizza party, broke the grocery store’s system and was on my way home to whip up food for a crowd of as-yet-undetermined size.  Are you with me?

I got home and changed into a summery dress.*

*One more sidebar.  I can’t wear clothing that I’ve worn to a doctor’s office or hospital before they’ve been washed again.  I mean, come on!  They’re like big old petri dishes. Someone else needs to tell me they do the same thing right now.  Someone?  Hello?

As I stood propped against my counter in the kitchen making an octuple batch of pizza dough (and I’m not exaggerating.  I told you.  I didn’t know how many people were coming and NO ONE goes hungry at my house on account of me…) the boys entered the room.  One (or more… Who could tell?  I was woozy.) said, “Hey!  That dress looks just like one Nana would wear.”  And at that moment I realized they were totally right.  I. Was. Exactly. Like. Mom.

But you know what?  I smiled, shrugged and said, “I like it!”

~~~   ~~~   ~~~

Let me tell you.  The party was a total success.  And at our finest hour, we had seventeen kids running around, through, and over our home and property.  That’s 1-7.  Or 10 plus 7.  Or my five kids in addition to twelve kids who sprang from other people’s loins.  Sorry.  Is that unappetizing?

I had turned out a gallon of iced tea (supplemented by a gallon from my brilliant friend, Lisa), a gallon of lemonade and a gallon of Arnold Palmers, three sheet pizzas (one pepperoni and cheese, one cheese only, and one bacon and pineapple and onion beauty) one fifteen-inch round pizza (feta and spinach and hot pepper and olive and bacon) and two nine-by-thirteen pans full of Chaos in the Kitchen‘s brilliant pizza bites. By the time the crowd broke up and went home we had exactly ZERO leftovers.

My kids looked at me, gratefulness in their eyes for such a fun time, and said, “We’re starved!”

I had a little dough left from the pizza bites, a pound of ham-off-the-bone and a few cubes of cheese sitting around, so I threw together my take on the aforementioned pizza bites; Ham and Cheese Bites.

The Ham and Cheese Bites were inhaled by my poor-long-suffering children who went to bed five minutes later, starving once again…

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe minus the blahdy-blahdy, click here!

 

Ham and Cheese Bites

adapted from Chaos in the Kitchen’s Pizza Bites

Yield: 30 Ham and Cheese Bites

Ingredients:

  • Double batch of homemade pizza dough (see recipe below) or 2 packages of purchased pizza dough
  • 30 wafer-thin slices of deli ham
  • 30 (1/2″ to 3/4″) cubes Swiss cheese
  • 30 (1/2″ to 3/4″) cubes Mozzarella cheese
  • 4 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 2 Tablespoons semolina flour or corn meal (for sprinkling the pan), divided
  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon dried chives
  • 3/4 teaspoon granulated onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • 1/4 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning or seasoning salt

Divide the pizza dough into 30 equal-ish pieces.  Let rest.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Lay out one piece of deli ham.  Top with a cube each of mozzarella and Swiss cheese.

Tuck the ham around the cheese to form a little packet.

Place on a plate. Repeat with remaining ham and cheese.  Set the plate aside.

Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the bottom of a 9″x13″ rimmed baking pan.  Repeat in another pan with the other olive oil.  Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon over the olive oil in each of the pans.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, spread out into a circle (or blob) roughly twice the size of your ham packets.  If the dough tears, do your best to patch the holes. Lay a packet of ham and cheese, seam side down, on the dough.

Pull the corners of the dough up toward the top of the ham and squeeze dough together to enclose the ham.

Pinch the dough closed at the seams and make sure there are no openings.  Place the dough, pinched side down, in the prepared pans.  Repeat with the remaining dough, making five rows of three dough balls in each pan.

Place the butter, chives, onion, garlic, and seasoning salt into a small microwave-safe dish.  Warm in the microwave until the butter is melted.  Stir together with a fork and brush over the dough.

Place pans into hot oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Some cheese may leak out of the bread and bubble up.  This is most definitely not a problem.  Call cook’s dibs on the crunchy cheese bits.

If desired, you can brush again with any leftover butter when you remove the pans from the oven. Allow to rest for five minutes before removing from the pans.  Serve warm with your favorite sauce.  Ours is listed below…

Creamy Horseradish Mustard Dip

You can serve this on sandwiches and no one will hate you for it.  No need to restrict it to the Ham and Cheese Bites…

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 2 Tablespoons prepared horseradish mustard
  • 1 Tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard

Stir all ingredients together with a fork or a small whisk.  Store unused portions tightly covered in the refrigerator.

Semolina Pizza Dough

adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

Ingredients:

  • 1-3/4 cups (7-3/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1-1/4 cups (7-1/8 ounces) coarse semolina flour
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1-1/4 cups (10 ounces) water

In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (or in a large bowl with a wooden spoon) mix together all the dough ingredients until a soft, cohesive dough forms.  It will not be perfectly smooth, it should have a rather rough appearance.  Cover and let the dough raise for an hour at room temperature.  At this point, you can use the dough or refrigerate it for up to 36 hours.

 

 

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Holiday Food, kid food, Main Dish, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

May 3, 2010 by 9 Comments

The following is a partial re-print of my column that appeared in today’s Record-Eagle.

~~~   ~~~

The Evil Genius oftentimes has been asked, frequently in my presence, how he avoids weighing 500 pounds eating my cooking. His response has been to grab his belly, moan a little bit, and say “I could easily!” He slid a little into uncomfortable weight territory over the winter and thus has declared himself to be on a health kick. He’s been riding his bike, playing more sports with the boys, watching his food intake and (gasp!) skipping dessert most nights.

All well and good, but the dessert thing I’ve found distressing. I am a baker. I am the sugarplum fairy, for crying out loud. Desserts are what I do. I have always been a little (read: a lot) snotty about healthy desserts. “You want a healthy dessert? Eat an apple!” But even more urgently, he had a birthday coming up soon. Birthdays equal mega-desserts. I didn’t want to serve my husband a cup of granola for his birthday.

My dearly beloved’s disturbing new edict left me with two options; pout or learn to make some spectacular and healthy desserts.

Healthy desserts it was.

In order to compensate for my lack of buttercream and caramel sauce, I went for big, bright fruit flavors and low carbs to accompany them.

I kicked off my healthy dessert experiment with blueberry frozen yogurt. And guess what? The guys couldn’t tell that it was frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. (Sadly, yes, that is my benchmark of success for a healthy dessert. Does it taste healthy? If so, toss and start over.) The conversation went something like this:

Boys (in unison): “Mom, can I have more blueberry ice cream?”

Me: “It’s frozen yogurt.”

Boys (in unison): “No it isn’t. It’s blueberry ice cream. Can I please have some?”

Me: “Yes, you can have a lot. Because it is frozen yogurt.”

Boys (in unison wearing “I-Know-Better-You-Trickster-You” facial expressions): “OK, can I have another scoop of the blueberry (air quotes) frozen yogurt (more air quotes) right now?”

Husband (hesitating after the first bite with spoon suspended over bowl): “Are you sure this is low calorie? It feels fattening. It tastes like your regular desserts. Should I be eating this?”

Well, score one for me. I guess that maybe this old dog can learn a few new tricks. And I sheepishly admit that perhaps, maybe, I was ever-so-slightly, just-a-wee-bit wrong about healthy desserts. But I reserve my right to bust out a cheesecake, custard or poundcake smothered in buttercream every now and again. On that, I will not bend.

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt is as creamy as ice cream thanks to thick Greek yogurt, but if blueberries aren’t your thing, you can easily substitute with an equal amount of peaches, strawberries or raspberries. If you do, be sure to adjust the flavoring (vanilla, Crème de Cassis, Grand Marnier) to agree with whatever fruit you’ve used.

You have two options; you can strain the blended yogurt base to remove the blueberry seeds for a smooth and creamy frozen yogurt or you can go a little more rustic and leave them intact. Either way, it’s delicious. If you have a one-quart ice cream maker, you can easily halve this recipe.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe minus my tendency to blather, click here!

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

  • 3 cups Greek yogurt (whole or 2 percent)
  • 1-½ cups sugar
  • 6 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
  • 1 Tablespoon Crème de Cassis, Grand Marnier or pure vanilla extract

Add yogurt, sugar and blueberries to your blender and blend until smooth. If you’re using frozen berries, it may take a little coaxing to get them all blended. If it doesn’t “want” to blend, shut off the blender and move the contents around a little with a wooden spoon or spatula. Remove the spoon, replace the lid and blend again.

If a smooth product is desired, pour and force the yogurt base through a stainless steel, fine mesh strainer. It will take a while, so be prepared! I like mine strained because I think frozen blueberry seeds are not so pleasant on the old teeth. If you like a more rustic yogurt with bits of blueberry and seeds throughout, skip the straining. Either way, you need to refrigerate the yogurt base for 2-4 hours prior to freezing.

When you remove the yogurt base from the refrigerator, run a whisk through the mixture quickly to make it easier to pour. (The yogurt base has a tendency to firm up in the refrigerator so that it’s almost a Jell-o like consistency.  Running the whisk through it will loosen it up a bit.)

Pour the yogurt base into your ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. (In my Cuisinart ice cream maker, it took 25 minutes and was ready to serve immediately.) Transfer to a freezer-safe container with a lid. This makes about two quarts.

If you have any yogurt left over, store it tightly packed in the freezer with a piece of plastic wrap laid directly on the surface of the frozen yogurt.

To serve as we did for The Evil Genius’s birthday, lay a warm crepe on a plate. Add a scoop of blueberry frozen yogurt to the bottom left corner of the crepe. Fold the right half of the crepe left over the scoop of yogurt. Fold the top quarter down over the scoop. Top with a sprinkle of confectioners’ sugar or a dollop of blueberry compote or blueberry sauce.

Of course, you can skip all that folderol and pile the scoops on top of a cone.  One way or the other, you’re in for a deceptively healthy treat!  Obviously Rowan didn’t mind missing out on the crepes…

Filed Under: Desserts, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,