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Seared Mushrooms and a Mushroom Melt

December 21, 2011 by 12 Comments

I want to talk about my new favourite sandwich.

This sandwich firmly bridges the gap between dude food and chick vittles. Grilled cheese is always the ultimate in sandwichery, but grilled cheese that is crammed to overspilling with seared mushrooms? It’s the best of all worlds. The combination of gooey, salty cheese and umami packed mushrooms with just a hint of onion on buttery toasted rye bread is unparalleled. We’re talking about the kind of food you continue eating after you’re already full just because you want to keep tasting it.

You can go any direction you want with the mushrooms… I opted for baby portabella mushrooms (also known as cremini mushrooms) but you could go with white buttons or chanterelles or any other mushrooms or combination of mushrooms that are readily available and/or ding your chimes. The key is to sear them in a screaming hot pan until you get lovely brown bits on the outside. That’s where the flavour lives in a seared mushroom. While the seared mushrooms are accompanied by a bit of onion and white wine in the cooking and deglazing process, they gain a vibrancy  you don’t want to miss when thinly sliced scallions are stirred in after they’re off the heat.  Sounds good so far, right?

Enter the cheese which no longer has to stand alone.

Cheese and mushrooms are a match made in heaven. Both naturally contain those flavour compounds commonly known as umami but together they tickle your taste buds in ways that make your eyes roll back into your head.

It’s a well known fact that I love cheese (aside from the waxing rhapsodic above…) but I tell you the truth when I say it’s the mushrooms that really and truly make this sandwich sing. I cannot emphasize enough how much you should make the seared mushrooms. Make them. Really. Today.  REALLY.  Even if you’re not going to use them in grilled cheese (what are you nuts?!?) you can still have these handy to put on steaks or burgers or wrapped in omelets or topping scrambled eggs or add to sauces or just plain on a fork. They’re so good that I make them with three pounds or more of mushrooms at a time and portion them out in little plastic containers to freeze for the upcoming month. Because a supply of these mushrooms is ever present in my home and freezer, when I read Kevin at Closet Cooking’s post about mushroom grilled cheeses, I was more than halfway there to my rendition of his recipe.

When I’m slicing that many mushrooms at a time, my new  best friend, this Togiharu Gyutou 8.2″ knife sent to me by the folks at Korin.com is absolutely indispensable.

In actuality, I’m so reliant on this knife after just two weeks I can’t remember how I sliced things before I got it. It’s the sharpest knife, by far, that I have ever owned. In fact, I have a little confession.

I knew Korin was sending me the knife and I went a little fan girl over it. I’ve admired their knives from afar for quite some time. While some people collect baseball stats and memorabilia, music trivia and cds, etc… I collect information about my favourite chefs and the gear they prefer. I know Chefs Daniel Bouloud and Chris Costentino both swear by Japanese knives from Korin. That was good enough for me. I was hyper waiting for the package to arrive. When the UPS guy knocked on my door and handed me the package he remarked that the return address looked like it was in the same neighborhood as the old Yankee Stadium. I took that as the only ouvre I needed to start yammering about the knife that was in the box. Evidently, my UPS guy is a fan of great knives, too, because he asked to see it. I opened the packaging, took out the gift box in which the knife was packaged, lifted the lid and made my first mistake. Because the gift box was pretty, I didn’t want to put it down on my floor, so I attempted to hold it and slide the plastic safety sheath from the knife simulataneously. I promptly cut my finger. On the plus side, the knife was so incredibly sharp* that the only indication I had that I’d done such a stupid thing was the little stream of crimson dripping from my finger to the floor. The UPS driver oooed and aaahed over the knife (and I’m pretty sure he missed the quick blood letting I performed on myself) and headed out. I retired to the kitchen to bandage myself** and start slicing things that were not attached to me and my nerve endings.

*Like my dad always says, a sharp knife is a safe knife. That was the cleanest cut I’ve ever incurred in the kitchen. It closed itself almost instantly and healed up in two short days.

**Yes, I keep bandages in the kitchen. What can I say? I’m a klutz.

The way I see it, a good knife cuts stuff, but a great knife slices, chops and cuts in a way that takes the effort out of the task and looks good while doing it.  This is a great knife. Whether you’re slicing onions and mushrooms or chopping kale stems or slicing paper thin strips of pork for tocino (future post teaser!), it makes the job easy.

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Seared Mushrooms and a Mushroom Melt

Seared Mushrooms and a Mushroom Melt

Seared mushrooms are accompanied by a bit of onion and white wine then tossed with scallions for added vibrancy before being combined with a variety of cheeses and turned into the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich.

Make these exceptional seared mushrooms even if you're not a grilled cheese lover. You can keep them handy to put on steaks or burgers or wrapped in omelets or topping scrambled eggs or just plain on a fork.

Adapted from Kevin at Closet Cooking

Ingredients

    For the Seared Mushrooms:
  • 1 1/2 pounds assorted mushrooms, sliced (baby portabellas, chanterelles, button mushrooms, etc...)
  • 1 tablespoon (or more) neutral oil such as canola, peanut, vegetable, etc...
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 of a small yellow onion, diced very small
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
  • splash of white wine or stock
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 3 green onions, green part only, thinly sliced
    • For the Mushroom Melt:
  • 3/4 cup of seared mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup grated assorted nice melting cheeses (I used a mix of Kerrygold Blarney Castle, fontina and extra sharp Cheddar)
  • 2 slices hearty bread like rye or pumpernickel
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

To Make the Seared Mushrooms:

Place a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil and heat through until shimmery. Add the mushrooms (you can divide into batches to avoid overcrowding the pan if necessary) and a pinch of salt and use a spoon to distribute the mushrooms evenly in the pan. After you do that, don't stir the mushrooms for at least 1 minute (unless they start to smell or sound like they're cooking too quickly.) The goal is to develop a nicely browned surface on the mushrooms.

If you have to cook the mushrooms in batches, just move the previously cooked batch to the perimeter of the pan and add a little more oil before putting in the next batch of mushrooms with a pinch of salt.

When the mushrooms are flecked with brown, toss in the onion and garlic, stir and cook just until fragrant (about 1 minute or less), then add the white wine or stock to the hot pan and scrape up any brown bits that are stuck to the pan. Add the butter and cook, stirring, just until melted. Remove from the heat, taste for salt, then add pepper and any additional salt to taste.

Eat hot or store leftover mushrooms in individual portion sizes in the freezer for up to a month.

To Make the Mushroom Melt:

Toss the seared mushrooms and grated cheese together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Melt half of the butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet or griddle over medium heat. Place one piece of the bread on top of the melted butter, pile the mushroom cheese mixture on the bread, then place the remaining piece of bread on top. Let the sandwich cook and toast until the bottom piece of bread is golden brown. Lift the sandwich with a spatula and toss the remaining butter into the pan. Put your hand on top of the sandwich and carefully flip it over before lowering it to the pan (taking care not to burn your fingers!)

Toast for 1 minute, add a splash of water to the pan and cover for another minute to melt the cheese completely. Remove the lid and continue toasting the sandwich until the bottom is a deep golden brown. Transfer the finished sandwich to a cutting board to slice before plating and eating.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/12/21/seared-mushrooms-and-a-mushroom-melt/

 

Korin.com sent the knife to me to review, but all opinions about the knife are mine.

 

 

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Product Reviews, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: ,

Homemade Chorizo

November 10, 2011 by 25 Comments

Sausage is the pork product that fills in the holes in my heart.

And no, I do not want to hear about how true that probably is.

Sausage is just superior. What could be wrong with it? We’re talking about pork (win #1) that is ground (win #2) and combined with heavy spices and herbs (win #3) then fried in patties, rounds or broken up into tiny crisped bits (wins #4, 5, and 6).

I love nearly all sausage, but chorizo, oh chorizo holds a very special lobe in my heart.  It is even spicer, even porkier, even more full of personality than other sausages courtesy of a mega flavour packed paste made from dried chili peppers, onions and garlic soaked in vinegar then pumped up with cumin, oregano, cinnamon (?!? Cinnamon? What? Yes*!), salt and pepper.

*You may remember cinnamon in such savoury dishes as this, this, this and this. I’m not talking about Cinnabon Sausage. I’m talking about lending that subtle something, that indefinable taste that makes the difference between a pretty good dish and an outstanding one. Try me.

Yes, chorizo. I mean Mexican style chorizo. There’s nothing wrong (in fact there’s quite a bit right) about Spanish style chorizo, but they’re two different beasties all together. Spanish chorizo is -by and large- a dried, cured, smoked sausage and Mexican chorizo is most emphatically not. It is fresh, quick cooking and the stuff of queso fundido (A name that has always made me cringe. I mean honestly, for something that tastes so good it sounds awfully communicable.), huevos con chorizo, killer taco pizza and many other comfort food goodies. I’ve spent my time cooking bright red nondescript meat paste packaged in inedible plastic casings called chorizo by indiscriminate bargain grocers, but I knew there was something better. Far better.

And I was so right.

The answer, as it is so often, was to make it myself. And while I’ve mentioned before that I have about as much claim to authenticity in TexMex/Texican/Mexican cooking as any girl raised in the snowy climes of Northern Michigan (in other words, I have none), I know what I like to eat and I know what tastes go well together.  After reading the versions by the wonderful Homesick Texan and Girlichef and trying their recipes on for size, I took the advice proffered by both of them and swung out on my own to find my own perfect chorizo.

It’s tough work, eating batch after batch of sausage, but I’m willing to put in the time for the cause. I have to say that I’ve finally gone and done it. I have my favourite batch of chorizo: the batch I’ll attempt to replicate time and again.

So what do I do now that I’ve made the ultimate (to my mind) version of chorizo? I make mega batches of it. By mega batches, I mean I start with three pounds of ground pork (ground by yours truly, but that’s strictly optional), mix up a bunch, divide it out into one-meal-portions, freeze in flat packages*, and call it money in the bank. When you have pounds of chorizo in the freezer you have a jump start on fast and satisfying meals. How could you use it? Brown and break up a pound or so of chorizo and…

  • Add to some scrambled eggs for the classic huevos con chorizo. Serve on tortillas with cheese.
  • Stir into a couple cans or cups of black beans or refried beans and serve on tortillas or as a dip.
  • Mix with indecent quantities of cheese for queso fundido. Okay. Can we call it something else? Chorizo cheese dip anyone?
  • Pop on a pizza shell, dot with tomato sauce, top with a blend of grated Monterey Jack (or Pepper Jack) and Cheddar and bake. Top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, chopped sweet onions and guac. Hello Taco Pizza.
  • Put on tortilla chips and top with grated cheese. Those are some serious nachos, Jefe**.
  • Treat it like bacon, but spicier. Brown it up, get some crisp on it, and use any leftover fat to make some unbelievable home fries.

*Squoosh it out flat in zipper top bags. It takes up less space in the freezer and thaws faster when you need it.

**All the Spanish I ever learned I got from Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer and The Three Amigos. I apologize. I am, however, fluent in Yooper.

So what about you? What is your favourite use of chorizo? If you haven’t had it, do you think you might give it a go?

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Homemade Chorizo

Homemade Chorizo

Fresh Mexican style chorizo is as easy as mixing a simple, flavourful paste of chilis, vinegar, onion, garlic, herbs and spices into already ground pork. It's simple to stock your freezer and simpler yet to make a wonderful meal from your stockpile! Add to burritos, tacos, scrambled eggs, taco pizzas, breakfast burritos, nachos and more.

Inspired by and with thanks to: Homesick Texan and GirliChef

Ingredients

  • 10 dried guajillo chili peppers (stem and seeds removed)
  • 7 dried arbol chili peppers (stem and seeds removed)
  • 4 dried New Mexico chili peppers (stem and seeds removed)
  • 2 onions, peeled and chopped
  • 5 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 2 tablespoons Mexican oregano (can't find Mexican oregano? No prob. Sub in Mediterranean Oregano)
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper (or 2 teaspoons pre-ground black pepper)
  • 3 pounds ground pork

Instructions

Use a damp paper towel to wipe down the dried chili peppers. Toast the stemmed and seeded chili peppers until pliable (about 1 minute on each side) in a hot pan. Transfer them to a large non-reactive bowl (stainless steel, glass, or plastic), layer the chopped onion and garlic on top. Heat the vinegar (either in the microwave or on a stove top) until very warm to the touch. Pour over the chili peppers, onions, and garlic and lay a plate on top to weigh them down. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let set at room temperature for an hour.

Transfer all of the peppers, onions, garlic, vinegar, cumin, oregano, salt, cinnamon and black pepper to a blender and process until you have a smooth, thick paste. If necessary, add another splash of vinegar to help things move along. Let cool completely.

When the chili paste is completely cool, mix thoroughly into the ground pork with the remaining ingredients using your hands until everything is a uniform colour.

Divide into one-meal portions and put each portion into an appropriately sized zipper top bag (For portions up to 3/4 of a pound, use a quart freezer bag. For portions up to 2 pounds in size, use a gallon freezer bag.) Squeeze as much air out as you can, seal the bag, and squash the bags as flat as you can. This will help them to freeze easily, take up less precious freezer space, and thaw more quickly when needed.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/10/homemade-chorizo/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , ,

Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce | Lemons in Salt

October 13, 2011 by 17 Comments

Update: We have since found that storing this sauce in a squeeze bottle makes applying it to foods much easier. If you plan on using it as a dip, it’s still handy to have in a jar, but for putting on tacos, tostadas, sandwiches, pretzel sticks and finger tips, the squeeze bottle is your best friend!

Have you ever read a recipe and thought, “I must go make that this very instant!”? That’s what happened when I read about Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce and Lemons in Salt made by her friend on Shauna Ahern’s glorious blog, Gluten Free Girl. Creamy dip/dressing/perfume -whatever you want to call it- it delivered on every high hope I had for it. But first…

Oh first…

Let me tell you a little story about delayed gratification.

There are three key ingredients in the recipe that I thought I might hold me up on getting the sauce in my mouth A.S.A.P.: smoked paprika, chipotles in adobo, and lemons in salt.

I mail ordered the smoked paprikawith no hesitation. I knew there was zero chance that any of our local places would carry it. Hello Amazon. You’re so good to me.

I grabbed a couple lemons at the little corner store in town and salted them the very day I read Shauna’s recipe. No problemo. We were on our way.

Now herein lies the rub.

You all know I don’t live in a teeming metropolis. I don’t even live near a sleepy urban center. The closest thing I have is a pretty well-stocked limited grocery store in a town off the expressway twenty five minutes away. This store has an exceptional selection of health foods, produce, micro-brew and imported beers, hispanic foods and other goodies. I figured it was my “in” to get the sauce made. There was no way they couldn’t have chipotles in adobo, right?*

*Grammar Law #1. You will always fail when you think in double negatives.

As soon as I could reasonably conjure up a reason to go to that town (chicken feed? drop off a check at the bank? stop by the other Amish store for canning lids?) I hopped on over and hit the grocer’s feeling confident that I would be leaving the store with a couple cans of chipotles in adobo. I didn’t see them on the shelf, but I still had faith. When the clerk said, “Did you find everything alright today?” I answered with a chipper, “No, but I’m sure I overlooked it. Could you tell me where the chipotles in adobo are?”

My first clue that my dreams for that evening were in trouble came when she looked at me and said, “Our what?”

Me: “Chipotles in adobo.”

Her: “I have NO idea what you mean, ma’am.”

She called me ma’am.

Me: “They’re usually in the Mexican foods section in most stores.”

Her: “I could ask the manager if you’d like!”

Me, salvaging a little hope: “Oh yes, please!”

Her to manager: “This lady would like something in something. What was that ma’am?”

Again with the ma’am.

Me: “Chipotles in adobo?”

Manager: “I have NO idea what you mean, ma’am.”

I left with my head and heart low and a firm resolution to check Amazon for chipotles in adobo and wrinkle cream as soon as I got home.

I ordered my stuff from Amazon.com and waited patiently (if you call panting at the door waiting patiently) for UPS to deliver the goods. Two days later, the man in brown dusted himself of the grass clippings that somehow stuck to his uniform when I accidentally tackled him to grab my parcel. I had everything.

And in what you might think would be a anticlimactic moment, I had the sauce made in less than five minutes. I’m here to tell you the real excitement, even with all that build up, was the first moment I tasted the sauce. I decided to be genteel and forgo dragging my finger through the blender jar. I used a very classy pretzel stick for the dunking. Then I tried another one. And a few more. Next I tried carrot sticks and the little corner of a tortilla.

Wow.

It is creamy, thick, smooth, smoky, lemony, garlicky and then at the back of it, it’s just spicy enough to make it worth eating. In the coming days, I served it as a sauce on grilled chicken, tossed with pasta, spread on hamburgers, thinned out as salad dressing, and as a chip  and French fry dip. Every single way I served it blew my mind.

This is now a regular part of our condiment repertoire. In fact, I have a designated container for “The Sauce” as it is known in our household. When “The Sauce” gets low, a chorus of voices reminds me that I need to make more.

It is that good.

If you need help locating the good stuff for this recipe you can follow the links below to my beloved Amazon. They never let me down.

Disclosure: Amazon did not pay me to say this. They didn’t even send me a free can of chipotles in adobo. I do, however, have a little agreement with them. If you click on either of the links to order through Amazon, I get a teensy commission. It’s about enough over the course of the year to purchase said chipotles in adobo.
La Moreno Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce, 7-Ounce Tins (Pack of 6)

McCormick Smoked Paprika (Paprika Ahumada), 8.5 oz Size

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Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce | Lemons in Salt

Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce | Lemons in Salt

This is creamy, thick, smooth, smoky, lemony, garlicky and then at the back of it, it's just spicy enough to make it worth eating. In the coming days, I served it as a sauce on grilled chicken, tossed with pasta, spread on hamburgers, thinned out as salad dressing, and as a chip and French fry dip.

Recipe used courtesy of Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl

Ingredients

  • 2 cups mayonnaise (16 ounces)
  • 1 to 3 chipotles in adobo (from a can, use a bit of the sauce, too.)
  • 3 tablespoons smoked paprika
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2-2 teaspoons preserved lemon peel in salt, to taste, minced (See recipe below)

Instructions

IMPORTANT NOTE: It IS possible to overprocess this sauce. If you let it go too long in the blender, the mayonnaise will 'break' and separate. You don't want that to happen, so only process 'til smooth! Oh, and I find that little tiny bits of chipotle in the sauce are quite pleasant!

Combine all ingredients in the blender jar and let it run on high until smooth. Scrape into a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve. This stores very well in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed jar.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/10/13/smoked-paprika-and-chipotle-sauce-lemons-in-salt/

So let me talk about Lemons in Salt for a moment. Make this. Make it now. Today. And make a lot of it, because once you have it in your kitchen you’ll wonder what you did without it. The salt draws moisture from the lemons and makes them mellow and soft and deep in flavour. The salt is a bonus. When you make the lemons preserved in salt you automatically have lemon finishing salt for meals and dishes, too.

I’ve stuffed these lemon peels in the cavities of roasting chickens, chopped it up and added it to marinated salads, and my mom ate the salty lemon peels like a snack. Yes she did. Repeatedly. But we’ll talk about that later. Just make some.

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Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce | Lemons in Salt

Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce | Lemons in Salt

Unbelievably simple and adding incredible depth of flavour to whatever they're added, lemon peels preserved in salt are something every kitchen should have in abundance.

Recipe used courtesy of Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl.

Ingredients

  • Lemon peels that have been juiced and trimmed of most pulp
  • kosher salt

Instructions

Cut the lemon peel into slices. The size and shape is unimportant, it's just to make it take up less room in a mason jar.

Add the lemon peels to a mason jar and cover with a great deal of kosher salt.

Add the lid to the jar and shake well.

Pour more salt in if necessary to cover the lemon peels. Let set at room temperature and use as needed.

Replenish the lemon peels whenever you juice more lemons.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/10/13/smoked-paprika-and-chipotle-sauce-lemons-in-salt/

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Component Foods, Condiments, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian

Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

September 14, 2011 by 22 Comments

 

Are you ready for some salsa? It’s a salsa time of year, after all. Now is the time for all good tomatoes to come to the aid of the salsa. Salsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsa!

Clapclap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clapclap. Clap. Clap. Clap*

*Ahem. That’s a salsa beat. Trust me.

It’s not that I get carried away over salsa in general, but I do over this particular salsa. Aside from fresh salsa (pico de gallo, or whathaveyou) this is what every single little salsa wants to be when it grows up. It’s smoky, thick, brick-red, and vibrant with guajillo and chipotle chiles, roasted tomatoes and tomatillos, and garlic that you forget you’re eating a jarred salsa. This is the salsa that makes people stop and say, “WOW!” and “Where’d you get this?” That, my friends, is no time for humility. Show them the rows of this on your shelves and puff your chest out a bit and say, “I made it.” I’d advise you fix a dollar amount in your head before serving to company, though, because you will inevitably be asked by reasonable people how much you would charge for a jar*.

*Unreasonable people, or younger siblings, however, will ask, beg and plead for you to give them a jar for free and remind you of the fact that they never told mom that you made them wear your fluffy pink nightgown in exchange for playing Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars with them even though they still don’t know you would’ve played it anyway because you liked them better than Barbies anyway.

It is best to be prepared is my point.

Back to the salsa. There are a few key points that differentiate this salsa from your average chunky jarred stuff.

  • It uses dried, reconstituted chiles instead of fresh ones. For some reason this just feels so much easier. Am I crazy? Maybe. But this is what my brain says and I’m listening.
  • It is made from roasted tomatoes rather than blanched, peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes. (Read: two-step tomatoes rather than four-step tomatoes.) This makes peeling easier because you roast the tomatoes, put them in a paper bag, crimp the top and wait a few minutes, then the skin just sloughs right off. I’m sorry about using slough while talking about food. I know it’s not appetizing, but I couldn’t think of another word that fit just right.
  • It is a “ground” salsa. Instead of uniformly (and angrily, depending on how much salsa you’re making and how many times you’re interrupted by the people who will eventually eat this salsa) hand chopping all the prepared ingredients, you toss them into the food processor and pulse until all the contents have been chopped to the point where they’re pretty derned little. Almost (but not quite) smooth. Why? Well, because I can. And because it tastes great. And because my kids like it better that way. And because it makes this end product more versatile. You can dump a jar on a pork or beef roast or a whole chicken, marinate it overnight, then drop it in the crockpot the next day on low. After several hours, shred everything together for the ultimate in simple main dishes. Eat the meat on sandwiches, on barbecue pizzas, in quesadillas, in this glorious dish, or on tacos. I guarantee you’ll come up with many more ways to use meat cooked in this salsa.
  • It just plain tastes better. I realize that’s not scientific or terribly persuasive, but there you have it. This is the best salsa in the world.

I have one final piece of advice about this salsa. Double the recipe. You really should just trust me on this or one of two things will happen to you. You will find yourself crying over your last jar of salsa between bites ~OR~ you will be reduced to guarding your stash jealously, suspiciously staring down anyone walking past your pantry or basement stairs and menacingly slapping a wooden spoon against your palm to show them you mean business. It will be easier on your mind in the long run if you just go ahead and double it. You’ve been warned.

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Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

It's smoky, thick, brick-red, and vibrant with guajillo and chipotle chiles, roasted tomatoes and tomatillos, and garlic that you forget you're eating a jarred salsa. This is the salsa that makes people stop and say, "WOW!" and "Where'd you get this?" Be sure to double the recipe because it will be one of the most popular things you ever can.

Recipe from the canning bible: The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Ingredients

  • 12 dried chipotle chile peppers, stemmed
  • 12 dried guajillo (cascabel) chile peppers, stemmed
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 2 pounds tomatillos, husks removed
  • 2 pounds plum tomatoes, cored
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 head garlic, broken into cloves with excess paper brushed away
  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons sugar (raw or granulated)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (non-iodized)

Instructions

Place a large, dry, heavy skillet over medium heat.

Toast the chipotle and guajillo peppers on both sides (this may take more than one go-round as the size of the skillet determines how many peppers you can fit in at a time without overcrowding), about 30 seconds to a side, until they are pliable and fragrant. Transfer the toasted chiles to a stainless steel or glass bowl and pour the 2 cups of boiling water over the peppers. Weight the peppers down with a bowl or plate to keep them submerged and cover the whole bowl with plastic wrap or a tight cover for 15-30 minutes or until the peppers are softened.

Transfer the contents (water and peppers both) to a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until smooth. Set aside.

Put cored plum tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic in a single layer into a rimmed baking pan. Put them under a broiler set on high until tomatillos and tomatoes are blistered, blackened and softened and onions and garlic have black spots on them. Put tomatillos and tomatoes into a paper bag and cinch the top closed. Set aside until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.

Pull the tomatoes out one at a time, rub them to remove the skins, depositing the peeled tomatoes directly into the food processor bowl that is fitted with a metal blade. When the processor is full, pulse until smooth. Pour the smooth processed tomatoes into a large, stainless steel stockpot. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes and tomatillos.

Peel the onions and garlic and pulse in the food processor until finely chopped. Add those to the tomatoes and tomatillos in the stockpot.

Add the reserved pureed chiles and remaining ingredients to the stockpot and stir until evenly distributed.

Prepare canner, jars and lids. (For more information on how to do this, see this link. )

Bring the tomato mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to a simmer, stirring frequently, and continue simmering until it thickens slightly. This should take about 15 minutes or so.

Ladle the hot salsa into the prepared jars, leaving 1/2-inch (1 cm) of headspace.

Use a stainless steel chopstick or butterknife to remove any air bubbles. If you need to add more salsa to maintain the headspace, do so.

Use a clean towel dampened with vinegar to wipe the rims of the jars.

Center the lid on the jar then screw on the band until fingertip-tight. Don't overtighten but don't leave loose!

Place jars into a canner, cover with water by an inch, and bring to a boil with the lid on the canner. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, begin a 15 minute timer. When the timer expires, turn off the heat, remove the lid to your canner and let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes.

After five minutes, carefully transfer the jars to a towel or cooling rack on your counter and let stand, undisturbed, for 24 hours. Any jars that did not seal should be stored in the refrigerator.

After 24 hours, remove the rings for the sealed jars, wipe the jars clean and label them for storage. Store with the rings off (and in a single layer.) This is a little insurance policy. If there is bacterial growth in the jars, the bacteria will produce gas which will loosen and push up on the lid. This is an indicator that the jar has gone bad. If you have the rings in place, the lids cannot loosen and pop up to tell you something is wrong.

Store in a cool dry place for up to a year.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/14/smoky-roasted-tomatillo-and-tomato-salsa/

 

 

 

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Canning, Component Foods, Gifts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, kid food, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

Boiled Cider (Apple Molasses)

September 8, 2011 by 66 Comments

I am a magician.

You see that wine bottle? I fit two whole gallons of apple cider into it.

Really.

Okay, I boiled the cider down until it fit, and I didn’t have to work hard to do it. Yes, it took nearly six hours, but I didn’t stir it and wasn’t even in the same room (or same floor of the house for that matter) for more time than it took to pop in and confirm that, yeah, it was still boiling, and mmm-hmmm, it was still shrinking in volume.

So what’s the point behind this exercise?  I am about to let you in on an almost-forgotten little piece of America’s food history. This thing goes all the way back to the sixteen-hundreds, the introduction of apples as a crop and the European settlers. I’m talking about Boiled Cider.

Oh, I know. The name? Boring. Totally. Sometimes it has been referred to as apple molasses which ,while a little more jazzed up comparatively speaking, still sounds pretty meh. Believe me, though, there is nothing bland, boring, or unexciting about Boiled Cider.

You know when you get a really good glass of fresh, icey cold apple cider straight from the mill; The way your tastebuds perk up and your mouth actually waters from the tart sweet cider? Imagine that times seven*. Add to that a hint of caramelization, and a thick, pancake syrupy consistency and you have Boiled Cider. It is beautiful in its simplicity. It is just cider. No sugar, no flavourings, no preservatives, no fancy canning. It is only cider boiled down into a thick, shelf-stable syrup that makes just about everything better by its mere presence. There is no added sugar, it is the natural sweetness of the apples that makes this so good.

*Seven is not an arbitrary choice for this comparison. When boiling cider down for this project you want to reduce it to one seventh of its original volume.

Boiled Cider started as a way the settlers devised to preserve cider long past when even hard cider would be drinkable and would pass into irretrievably vinegar territory. Kept in a bottle on the pantry shelf, this stuff lasted through the winter and into the next apple season for them and it will do the same for you.

What do you do with Boiled Cider? Let me get you started, but once you have this handy, you’ll be off and running.

  • Drizzle over vanilla ice cream.
  • Use to baste pork roasts or chops, ham, chicken or glaze other meats.
  • Stir a little into hot tea.
  • Pour some into a mug, add a shot of whiskey or brandy, and top off with hot water.
  • Toss a tablespoon or two to the sliced apples for a pie or apple crisp. You will be blown away by how much more appley it tastes. (I know many professional bakers add this to their pies and crisps as their secret ingredient!)
  • Whisk into cream cheese icing for a pumpkin spice cake and be prepared for the compliments.
  • …Our personal favourite: Pour a tablespoon over ice, fill the rest of the glass with seltzer water, and give a quick stir. Voila! Healthy apple cider soda!

Lipsmacking just doesn’t cover it. This is… It’s… Could words be failing me? It’s like everything wonderful about fall condensed into one syrup. It’s pure, distilled essence of apple. It’s completely and utterly wonderful. And you get all this just by boiling a pot of cider.

Don’t wait. Make some of this for yourself as soon as possible. Have it on your shelf. Then, in December, January, February -whenever you need a boost- pull out your bottle of this opaque, deep reddish brown elixir and pour out a little measure of happiness. You’ll be so glad you did.

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Boiled Cider (Apple Molasses)

Boiled Cider is everything wonderful about fall condensed into one syrup. It's pure, distilled essence of apple. It's completely and utterly wonderful. And you get all this just by boiling a pot of cider.

Ingredients

  • 2 gallons apple cider (or less, but remember you will be reducing this to 1/7th of it's original volume.)

Instructions

Pour apple cider into a very large, non-reactive stockpot (stainless steel, copper, or glass, but NOT aluminum unless it's coated.)

Use a clean ruler or wooden stick that you can mark with the starting level of the cider.

Turn heat to high, cover the pot with a splatter screen (to prevent flies or other insects from dropping into the pot) and bring to a boil.

Boil the cider hard until it has reduced to 1/7th of its original volume. Watch more carefully toward the end because it may creep up higher in the pan as it becomes thicker and bubbles stack up on each other. Turn off the heat and let the bubbles die down to check the depth of the liquid with your ruler or dipstick. You should end up with approximately the volume that it takes to fill a clean, empty 750ml wine bottle.

Pour into a clean, sterile jar (for long term storage) or a clean, empty wine bottle (for short term, refrigerated storage). Cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/08/boiled-cider-apple-molasses/

Filed Under: Beverages, Canning, Component Foods, Condiments, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

August 25, 2011 by 21 Comments

 

It is no secret that I am a big proponent of making things that many folks buy at the store. From the common (potato chips, bread, ice cream, laundry detergent) to the hard-or-impossible-to-find (furikake, candied jalapenos, game stock), home kitchen alchemy can do it if it’s worth having or doing. Sometimes my efforts earn me admiration, but just as often it gets me a resounding, “Why would you bother when you can easily buy this fill-in-the-blank at the store?” My motivation for this DIY spirit tends to vary with the project, but here, in no particular order, are a few reasons that pop up frequently.

  • To save money: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m cheap. I want to stretch every household dollar as far as it can reasonably go without breaking. Starting with basic ingredients prepared at home is almost assuredly gentler on your wallet than pre-fab food.
  • To make it taste better: I honestly believe that the best food is never, ever going to come from a box mix or a shelf-stable pre-made package. This is not to say I’m a food snob; I’ll eat just about anything you put in front of me. Food should sustain your body, yes, but it should also nourish your soul, so if I’m the one slinging grub, I’m going to make it the best grub I can possibly sling.
  • To make it better for you: Soup made at home is, unless you’re very heavy handed, certain to contain less sodium than the canned or frozen variety. You can opt to make foods with healthier ingredients (for example olive oil vs. vegetable oil, butter vs. shortening, etc…)
  • To avoid certain ingredients: Thankfully, my husband, children and self are free of food allergies, but there are still certain preservatives and ingredients that I choose not to serve to us. Making our own food from scratch is a much easier way to accomplish that than obsessively reading labels.
  • To know the source of the item: This is not a star-bellied sneetch issue; I don’t care whether something has stars on thars. The problem is that there have been some real problems in the recent past with food, household, or health and beauty items that did not meet safety standards. Besides, why pay for something to come from overseas when I can make it here at home, saving goodness-knows-how-much fuel and/or energy for better purposes?
  • To prove that I can do it: It’s that pioneer spirit, that sisu, that I-don’t-know-what. It’s the same reason my dad put on his winter kit and walked around the house three times after the meteorologist said that the weather was too bad for anyone to be outside. We do this because we are capable and we are not intimidated. If a machine can make it, I darned well better be able to make it, too. (This is where we pound our chests and do warrior cries, folks.)

Chocolate syrup is a big deal around here. Chocolate syrup is stirred into cold milk for chocolate milk, hot milk for hot chocolate, blended into smoothies, squirted on ice cream, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, pound cake,  and –when I’m not looking- directly into mouths. We consume it in vast quantities. A couple years back, I got tired of actively ignoring the ingredient lists (the major brands all have high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavouring, food dyes, and other things on my no-no- list) and paying through the nose for the privilege. A little experimentation yielded a vastly superior in taste, higher quality, far less expensive chocolate syrup that was simple to make and required nothing more exotic than Dutch-processed cocoa powder.

I played around with the classic Alton Brown cocoa syrup recipe and found that our crew greatly preferred it made with raw sugar because of the light caramel undertones it delivers and the added richness. Honestly. How could rich + chocolate go wrong? I make at least one batch (sometimes more if the hot chocolate consumption is especially high around these parts) of this good stuff a month.

Bonuses: If you are looking for fat-free, this recipe is for you! If you’re not looking for fat-free, I suggest making it anyway. This chocolate syrup is mighty good. This syrup can be made with honey if you have corn allergies or aversions chez you.  Try finding a chocolate syrup at the store that is corn syrup free for this price!

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Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

This simple homemade DIY chocolate syrup delivers a mega punch of deep, dark, and chocolatey flavour for drizzling on ice cream, stirring into milk, blending into Coffee Milkshakes , or whatever else your chocolate-loving heart desires.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 3 cups raw sugar
  • 1 ½ cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract (preferably homemade)
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup or mild honey

Instructions

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium-to-large saucepan (this will expand as it boils in later stages of the recipe), stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk in the remaining ingredients until the cocoa powder is also dissolved. Return to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5-8 minutes. You do not want to boil it until it is very thick, as it will become even more viscous as it cools.

Pour the hot syrup through a fine mesh strainer and let cool to room temperature before transferring into squeeze bottles.

Notes: Dutch-processed cocoa powder is used here because it dissolves more easily in liquids than common (a.k.a. natural) cocoa powder; No matter what its other benefits, a homemade chocolate syrup that is gritty isn’t what we want. Dutch-processed cocoa powder is generally easy to find in grocery stores with well-stocked baking sections and in bulk food stores. I use raw sugar in this recipe because I like the added depth of flavour and touch of caramel it contributes. If you cannot find it easily (it is also sold under the names turbinado, sugar-in-the-raw, and demerara) you can substitute white granulated sugar for it. You can get squeeze bottles at big box stores or in the kitchen notions sections of grocery stores. If you use an opaque ketchup or mustard bottle to store your syrup, remember to label it so you don’t forget what’s in there at an inopportune moment. While chocolate syrup is good on many things, hot dogs and hamburgers are not among them.
http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/08/25/chocolate-syrup/

Filed Under: Chocolate, Component Foods, Condiments, Instructional, kid food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Homemade Slow-Cooker Pizza Sauce

July 25, 2011 by 13 Comments

 

Raise your hand if you think pizza is the perfect food.

I see a lot of hands. This might take a while.

I have my hand up. I’d stick both of them in the air and wave them like I used to do when I had the answer in History or English*, but then this would be a very short post.

*Yep. I was that kid. Nicknames? The Curve Breaker, Encyclopaedia Beccy, …

Do you know anyone who doesn’t like pizza? I would wager you that in actuality they just haven’t had the right pizza yet. There’s a lot of nasty stuff sold out there called pizza.  Gummy crusts, plastic cheese, poorly chosen or cooked  toppings, and insipid sauce- it’s no wonder some folks have the wrong idea.

Great pizzas start with great foundations that don’t have to be difficult. In fact, the less complicated your pizza process is, the better your pizza usually ends up tasting. With a little advanced planning, you can have all of the ingredients you need for your favourite pizza on hand for last minute cravings.

This sauce is the lynch pin for almost any pizza you could want. Crusts may vary -wheat, rye, cornmeal, semolina, what have you- and toppings are a matter of preference -pepperoni, sausage, broccoli, bacon, onions, spinach, pineapple and more- but a really good homemade sauce can be nearly universal (with the exception of white pizza, of course, but that’s another post entirely.)

Here, we use a slow-cooker in all it’s magnificent useful glory to whip up a big ole batch of the pizza sauce I love best. It’s perfect for the job because you want a low, slow simmer to fully develop all those lovely, large flavours that make up the best sauces. Our sauce ends up a thick, gorgeous brick red that you’ll want to use for more than just pizza; Dunking bread sticks, licking from spoons and a couple other fun uses* come to mind.

*As in a fun use I’m going to share with you here on Wednesday.

Why not buy a jar or a can? Pfffft. You can do better than that stuff easily and make it much, much less expensively!

The recipe yields a fairly substantial six cups which is sufficient for four or five pretty large pizzas, but is easily doubled, tripled or even quadrupled if you’d like to freeze up several pizzas-worth in individual portions. This is step number one in satisfying last minute pizza cravings. Step two is having pizza dough or pre-baked pizza shells (recipes here and here)  in the freezer. Let’s get sauced, shall we?

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Homemade Slow-Cooker Pizza Sauce

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes

Yield: About 6 cups.

Deep, rich red and packed with herbs, garlic, olive oil and Italian cheese, this old-school pizza sauce will knock your socks off. The recipe yields plenty of sauce to freeze for future use.

This recipe is gently adapted from 'Not Your Mother's Slow-Cooker Cookbook' by Beth Hensperger.

Ingredients

  • 2 cans (12 ounces each) tomato paste
  • 2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup (or more) water
  • 1-4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon dried basil
  • 1-4 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 anchovy fillet
  • 1-2 tablespoons raw sugar or granulated sugar
  • 3-4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese (or a blend)
  • salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Instructions

Whisk together the tomato paste, tomato sauce, water, garlic, oregano, basil, parsley flakes, olive oil, the anchovy fillet and 1 tablespoon of the sugar in the crock of your slow-cooker until smooth.

Place the lid on the slow-cooker, turn it to 'LOW' and let simmer for four hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so to prevent scorching, or until brick red and very thick. You may add extra water by the tablespoon full if it begins thickening too quickly.

Stir in the grated cheese and taste.

Adjust seasoning (and sugar content) if necessary.

Cool completely and portion into single use portions and freeze until ready to make pizza.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/07/25/homemade-slow-cooker-pizza-sauce/

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Component Foods, Condiments, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , ,

Homemade Claussen Knock-Off Pickles

July 22, 2011 by 97 Comments

It’s common knowledge that I have a salty tooth rather than a sweet tooth. When the weather does what it has been doing lately (making us all do our best Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego impersonations) I can’t think of a single thing I find more refreshing than an icy-cold, salty, crunchy pickle. Oh yes. You can keep your popsicles* and those icy squeezy pop things whose name currently escapes me. I’m on deck with the pickles.

*I will, however, fight you for fudgesicles. That’s just the way it is.

It’s not just me, it’s my whole family: mother, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, grandparents, kids, husband…  I married a man who loves pickles so much he eats the pickles and then drinks the juice from the jar. In fact, in an attempt to show my husband just how much she loved him, my mom made a special pickle juice drink for him at our wedding. And he drank it*. Happily.

*He drinks pickle juice regularly in hot weather. He claims it is “Gatorade for people who don’t like sweets.” I love him.

I grew up eating my Grandma’s homemade dill pickles like the supply was endless and moved on to canning my own pickles as soon as I had a kitchen of my own. My little sister, Jessamine, and I compare our homemade pickles from year to year the way some people compare wine vintages. But there is one pickle that stands head-and-shoulders (were pickles to *have* heads and shoulders) above all others. I’m talking about the pickles you see here.

These are homemade refrigerated deli pickles, also known as Lithuanian half-sours, also known (in the commercial equivalent) as Claussen dill kosher pickles, also known as the best pickles ever known to mankind.

Here’s the thing. While I do love my other homemade pickles dearly (otherwise why would I continue canning ninety-something quarts year after year after year), these are by far my all-time favourites. CRUNCH. That’s what you hear when you bite these. There is no flop, no squish, no slime. These things almost bite back.

Claussens were long the benchmark for which I aimed in pickle making. No matter what, a canned pickle is not going to end up like that lovely Claussen: crunchy to the point of making noise when you bite it, cold, and seriously garlicky. Canned, shelf-stable pickles can be chilled, maintain some crunch and be as garlicky as you want them to be, but they are never, ever going to be the same thing because of science. When you heat process a jar of pickles you are, in actuality, cooking it and a cooked pickle just plain can’t be as crunchy as an un-cooked one.

Here’s where we get into bonus happy territory. You don’t have to cook anything to make these pickles; not one single thing. The brine is stirred together, the cucumbers are rinsed, trimmed and stuffed into a jar with garlic cloves and spices. Please, please, please give these a go even if you have never made a pickle before.  There is nothing scary or intimidating here. (Do you hear me Saint Tigerlily? No spectre of THE BOTCH!) Wash, slice, stuff, stir, pour, sit, wait. Okay wait. Yes. That last bit is hard. The waiting is hard. On the plus side, the wait is only two to four days which is significantly less than the six week wait of the canned pickles. Besides, as I said, there is the crunch factor.

Get on the homemade pickle train, my friends, there’s plenty of room for all of us and if you don’t know what to do with the leftover brine, just pass it to my husband. He’ll “dispose” of it for you. Crrrrrrrrrrunch!

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Homemade Claussen Knock-Off Pickles

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 gallons of pickles

Always crunchy and garlicky, this perfect homemade pickle requires no special equipment, no canning experience and tastes just like Claussen's refrigerated kosher dill pickles.

Ingredients

  • 35 to 40 small to medium pickling cucumbers
  • 1 gallon cold water
  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
  • 2/3 c. canning or kosher salt (Do NOT use iodized salt!)
  • 4 cloves garlic or more, to taste
  • 4 fresh dill heads ~or~ 4 tablespoons dried dill seed (not weed!)

Instructions

Wash cucumbers but do not scrub them.

Trim 1/8-inch from the blossom end of each cucumber and slice in half lengthwise or into quarters, depending on how large your cucumbers are and how big you want them to be when they're done.

In a gallon jar (or large, wide-mouth, food-safe container) layer the dill heads or seed, garlic cloves and sliced cucumbers.

In a separate pitcher or bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients until the salt is dissolved.

Pour the brine over the cucumbers, taking care to make sure all of them are fully submerged. If needed, place a plate or mug or other non-reactive heavy item on the cucumbers to weigh them down and keep them under the brine!

Cover lightly with a lid just perched on top or secure a piece of cheesecloth over the jar with a rubber band to keep fruit flies away.

Leave out of direct sunlight on the counter for two to four days*, or until the cucumbers taste like pickles throughout.

Fix your lid onto your jar or container and chill. These can be stored in the refrigerator for up to six months provided you keep them covered with brine.

*If at any point in the proceedings "fuzz" or "foam" develops on top of the brine, use a spoon to remove it. If there is "fuzz" attached to any of the cucumbers, remove the ones affected and be sure the others are still fully submerged.
http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/07/22/homemade-claussen-knock-off-pickles/

 

 

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Canning, Component Foods, Condiments, Food Preservation, Healthy Foods, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian
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