Mexican night

Last Tuesday was Mexican night - we seem to have been doing a world tour lately! I used Rick Bayless' "Mexico One Plate at a Time" cookbook and made a really good Roasted Poblano Guacamole (actually kindof combined both of his guacamole recipes - roasted 3 poblano peppers on the stovetop, let them sit in a paper bag, peeled the skins, then pureed them with 3 roasted (in a skillet, skin-on, then peeled) garlic cloves, 4 avocaodos (mashed), 3 tomatoes (diced), cilantro (chopped) and lime juice (freshly squeezed from the cutest little organic limes). It was inhaled by all with some chips!

We also tried making homemade corn tortillas, with only marginally successful results. The end product was a little thick and mis-shapen - it's definately not an art form I grew up with! But get me started on making koldunai (Lithuanian dumplings) - that's a whole 'nother story!

The turkey in mole came out delicious and tender - braising turkey breast definately makes it stay moist. The mole was good - but needed more salt (and a little more zing - a friend added chipotles to some leftovers and thought it was quite tasty - will have to give that a try next time). I also sauteed some kale with garlic on the side. The plate was quite lovely to look at with all the intense colors!

We drank beer with all of this - various kinds that folks brought, and I debuted the second beer I've ever made - a very hoppy (kindof grapefruity) pilsner - which was well received.

For dessert - a simple flan to which I added some roses - but which mostly tasted like vanilla... all in all, a good meal!

Kenyan Kidney Bean Stew (Seattle version)

I first had a version of a recipe had about 18 years ago (eek!), made by an ethnomusicology grad student and his wife - they had been to Africa for fieldwork, and made this for me and my now-ex-husband... I have no idea how authentic their version was, but the one that we developed over the years has a decidedly vegan-hippy-Seattle vibe (added tofu and veggies):

Kenyan Kidney Bean Stew
- 1 lb. extra-firm tofu, cubed (about 3/4 inch cubes) and patted dry with paper towels (or you will suffer the splattering consequences)
- Vegetable oil for frying

In a heavy saute pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, then add the tofu, in batches if needed - let fry on one side for about 3-4 minutes, then flip carefully to brown at least 1 more side (I usually do 3-4, then get bored). Drain on paper towels and salt lightly.

Start some rice - about 2 cups dry is good - I usually use jasmine or whatever is available.

- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 medium or 1/2 large onion, chopped
- 1 Tbsp. turmeric (powdered - never tried it with fresh)
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (completely optional)
- 1 15 oz. can chopped tomatoes
- 1 can coconut milk (not "lite" - a waste of money since you can water it down yourself if you're worried about calories)
- 1/2 head (if it's big) cauliflower, washed and separated into florets
- 1 bunch black kale (or other leafy green), chopped
- 1/2 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (optional - but tasty)
- 1 15 oz. can kidney beans (not drained)
- Salt to taste

In a heavy soup pot, heat up the oil, then add the onions. Saute for a few minutes until soft. Add the turmeric and cayenne (if using), and let it warm up in the oil, stirring, until you start smelling it - about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, and let them cook, stirring, until they have warmed up. Add the coconut milk, drain the kidney bean liquid from the can into the pot, and let the liquids come to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Add the vegetables (cauliflower, kale and squash, if using), add a little salt (I never measure the salt, and consequently usually make it not salty enough). Put a lid on the pot, bring the heat down to medium-low, and let the veggies cook through for about 10-15 minutes, until they're soft but not mushy. Add the tofu and kidney beans, taste for salt and add more if needed.

Serve with rice - makes about 6 servings.

Supperclub Update - Continued

But wait, there's more! Now we're getting into the holiday season, and amazingly enough a ton of snow here in Seattle - we had close to 2 weeks of snowy weather, which is unheard of. Here's my backyard before I snuck out to the balmy midwest for Christmas - apparently, it snowed another 7 inches the day after I left!

We had a 1-week hiatus because of Christmas, then had a small Supperclub the day before New Year's Eve, featuring Carribean food, since Rita and Shane were on a cruise in that neck of the woods:

12/30/08: Jerk chicken (baked, not grilled), sweet potato fritters, greens, and an odd coconut bread (it wasn't very sweet - I thought it would be more cake-like - should have paid more attention to the recipe!) and fresh mango for dessert.

1/6/09: The New Year was celebrated with a Provencal-style beef stew (from Cook's Illustrated about 13 years ago), homemade sourdough bread, warm cabbage salad with peppered bacon and roquefort (that went great with the beefy stew), and Anne's awesome pannetone-based bread pudding with caramel orange sauce. That was one good meal... and everyone was in a particularly festive mood, since we hadn't seen each other in a few weeks (see silliness at right). We also realized that it was our official 6-month anniversary - we've been meeting every week except 2 (when I was out of town) since early July! Yea Supperclub!

1/13/09: Brazilian night! Our own International Woman of Mystery was recently in Brazil, and smuggled in various and sundry smoked pig parts and made us all an awesome pot of Feijoada (black bean stew - with piggy bits), Couve Refogada (collard greens - I think Heidi took liberties with this recipe), and rice, which we washed down with Caipirinha cocktails with hand-imported cachaca (delicious but lethal - especially on a Tuesday night - they were carefully rationed). For dessert we had home-made mango-passion fruit ice cream and coconut macaroons - all fantastic! And all I had to do was mix drinks... and drink them... and eat... ahhhh...

1/20/09: Inauguration Party! Supperclub this week was an expanded version to celebrate our new President - in his honor we had a potluck of (sortof) Obama-themed food... so I made Kenyan Kidney Bean Stew (my enhanced version - I'll put the recipe in a separate post since I've gotten many requests), and people brought vaguely-Hawaiian or Kansas-themed foods... like Hawaiian pizza or chili in crock pots... we all watched the recording of the inauguration speaches, and I read from my 9-year-old niece's eye-witness report.

1/27/09: Finally catching up here! Last week was Thai food night, and it was almost Ladies Night, until Tomas crashed the party... and then he felt like he was on the Phinney Ridge version of The View.

We had: Tod Man Pla (Thai Fish Cakes) with what my sister calls "Thai ketchup" (Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce), Kao Moke Gai (Chicken with Crispy Shallots in Yellow Rice) - one of my favorite dishes from Nancie McDermott's Real Thai cookbook - the shallots alone are worth the price of admisison, and Chinese Broccolli stir-fried with fish sauce and brown bean sauce. For dessert we had Mochi Ice Cream balls - chocolate and mango flavors - since it is the Lunar New Year and it's just not a party until someone chokes on the mochi!

Ok - I promise to be better about posting now - but at least I'm caught up! Until next week...

Supperclub Update

I've been horrible about keeping the blog up-to-date on the Supperclub menus - sorry! Somehow time keeps getting away from me... so, here's a quick-and-dirty recap:

12/9/08: Bari Meatballs and Braised Vegetables over polenta (recipe altered slightly to include brussel sprouts as well as chard), with my favorite chocolate ice cream (you make a caramel base, then create basically a pot de creme, then chill and freeze) for dessert. Meatballs and polenta pictured along with most of the usual suspects... I can't figure out how to upload PDF, so email or post a note if you want me to send you the recipe for the meatballs!

12/16/08: Cassoulet & Capuccino biscotti. Leroy made this amazing quick cassoulet with lots of delicious roasted veggies and beans and chicken - the secret is in the spice rub! I made some biscotti that I was going to bake everyone for Christmas anyway... wish I had photos of this one!

To be continued...

Alaus. alaus duok dieve daugiau...

I owe a few posts on the Supperclub menus, but I need to get home and upload photos and recipes for those...

In the meantime, let's talk beer (alus, in Lithuanian). I recently made my first batch of beer - a red ale from a simple recipe from the brew shop - and it's tasting pretty good! A lighter lager-style beer is currently doing its thing in my chilly basement (Seattle has been very cold for the past few weeks - perfect for lager yeast, which likes cool temperatures for fermentation).

When I cook and bake, I'm not one to get too caught up in the details - I tend to not pre-sift flour, or measure goopy substances like honey or sour cream. I figure it'll work itself out somehow, or I've got enough experience to either fix my sloppiness or live with a failure from time to time and learn something from my mistakes.

When I started baking bread using a natural sourdough starter a few years ago, I found that the attention to detail that professionals put into their baking really pays off - measuring flour by weight instead of volume ensures that your bread is not to dry or to sticky, for example. But mistakes teach you the most about how things are actually working in there; when my original sourdough breads weren't rising properly, some trial-and-error with higher-gluten flours taught me that wild yeast needs a little more help to rise properly.

Making beer seems like a similar enterprise, although the yeasts I'm using are highly specialized creatures that you buy for specific flavor development and brewing characteristics. More experienced brewers warned me that sanitation is the number one issue for home brewers, so I've been scrupulous in that department, and have generally tried to follow the recipes fairly strictly until I'm familiar with the processes. Ruining 5 gallons of beer is a pricey mistake, so I'd rather avoid that if at all possible.

But the urge to experiment and better understand the little organisms that I'm working with is always there for me. Yet homebrewers seem to be a fretful bunch, worried about all the little details (The Art of Homebrewing doesn't dispel this fearfulness, despite its incessant cajoling not to worry and have a homebrew). One person I talked to was almost appalled that I was trying to make lager at home without a dedicated refrigerator; the way I see it, people have been making beer for a long long time in sub-optimal circumstances. Since I'm not doing this professionally, I can afford to mess around a little - no need for strict quality control and repeatable processes (I get enough of that sort of thing at work, thank you very much).

Back in the day (and I'm talking 80+ years ago - because I've been talking to my 94-year-old great-aunt this Christmas season), brewing beer was something you did yourself - along with everything else (growing flax, spinning thread, weaving cloth, making clothes, etc.). My great-aunt and father told me how beer was made in Lithuania "down on the farm." Barley was briefly soaked in warm water, then spread out to start sprouting - this increases the available sugar, as my aunt reminded me. The sprouted grain was then dried thoroughly, then lightly cracked. A barrel with a stopper at the bottom was lined with clean hay (how's that for sanitary?) and then boiling water was added along with grains. Once that cooled down (just like when you make bread), yeast and hops were added and the whole works fermented for a day or two. The barrel was then drained off (the straw worked as a filter to keep the grain in the barrel), and a second (and even a third) batch of beer was made from the same malted barley - decreasing in quality with each batch (my father said they referred to these as the "premium" batch, the "good" batch, and the last which was just "fit for drunks"). The batch of beer was moved to another barrel, aged and rotated in the hayloft (that was my father's job when he was a kid) and tapped for special occasions - like the post-harvest party, when they'd slaughter some sheep, make massive quantities of kugelis (without the modern convenience of the Kugelator), and feed all the people who came to help bring in the rye.

So I guess beer-making is in my blood, at some level - but the genes for sewing clothes were definitely not passed down! I'm going to keep experimenting and see what happens - and keep you posted!

Thanksgiving leftovers

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my brother, Rita and Shane, and Rita's parents - the turkey came out great, despite my lax approach (as in, rub it down with butter and lots of salt and pepper, stuff it lightly, and throw it in the oven for a few hours and forget about it). We also had 4 desserts, thanks to Rita! I contributed an apple pie, but she brought pumpkin and pecan pies, as well a pumpkin chocolate layer cake that was in the NYT a few weeks ago. They were all delicious!

I came down with a stomach flu on Sunday, so we had Supperclub on Wednesday last week, which made the week seem much shorter (especially since I was home sick for 1/2 of it!). By Wednesday I was feeling mostly better, and some friendly Lactobaccilli were helping take care of any residual weirdness... (ok - probably more info that you needed).

The menu was leftover-inspired, with a little extra in the dessert department to celebrate Anne's birthday!

To snack on:
Leftover Cranberry Black Pepper Chutney with a delicious sheep's milk cheese on La Panzanella's Rosemary Croccantini crackers (my favorite)

For dinner:
- Arugula salad with a balsamic vinaigrette (my sister Nida's recipe - squeeze a clove of garlic into a jar, add balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little sugar - screw on the lid and shake to disolve salt and sugar, then add olive oil to match the volume of the vinegar mixture, shake again to emulsify)
- Turkey pot pie with leftover turkey, fennel, peas, pearl onions, carrots and parsnips with tarragon buttermilk biscuits for the crust (this is also a recipe I concocted with Nida years ago when she was visiting for Thanksgiving). I use the Joy of Cooking for the biscuits (use the Buttermilk Biscuit recipe, but increase the liquid to a full cup or so, and add chopped fresh tarragon - they'll be a thinner, drop-biscuit consistency, which means you can just drop large spoonfuls over your pot pie). I made a gravy base with shallots, butter, flour and chicken stock, added a little leftover turkey gravy, and then added a little cream at the end to one of the pot pies. All in all, quite tasty!

Dessert was Upside-Down Pear Cardamom Cake, in honor of Anne (who loves seasonal fruit desserts) as well as the almost over-ripe pears sitting on my counter. This was so good I made it again for friends who came over on Friday night! I used Bartlett pears both times, and quartered them since they were on the large side. The second time I made it I pretty much doubled the cardamom - a spice that I love! I've made upside-down cakes before which failed to neatly disengage from the pan, but I think the enormous quantity of butter in this recipe really helps ease the journey from pan to cake plate! On Tuesday, we ate the cake with a little leftover vanilla whipped cream... on Friday we had homemade limoncello that a friend brought - a surprisingly tasty combo!

Pre-Thanksgiving "light" eating

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was designated as "hippie food" week - we thought that something a little lighter and nourishing before the annual overindulgence was in order. I made a multi-grain seeded bread with my sourdough starter - it came out tasty, but the dough was very wet, which made the bread flatten out a little like a ciabbata - not bad, just not quite what I was expecting. I've been using Nancy Silverton's Breads From La Brea Bakery for sourdough starter care and feeding insights, as well as her recipes. I'm generally amazed at the quality and attention to detail of her recipes, and the results have been great!

We also made Anne's Lentil Soup with Kale and Sausage - see her blog for the recipe. It was great, and the Italian sausage made it a little less "good for you" and a little more just plain good... A simple mache salad with walnut oil vinaigrette (just walnut oil and lemon juice and some salt and pepper) and toasted walnuts rounded things out and upped the health quotient.

For dessert we had Butterscotch Pudding - an old favorite from Amanda Hesser. It's a great combo of caramel with just a hint of salt in a rich custard... hmmm - I guess our dinner wasn't so light after all!