Breads and Spreads

Christmas present idea. But need suggestions for variations on the theme. We have some people, particularly older family members, who despise getting “stuff”. Came up with this idea over Thanksgiving when we were planning our holiday shopping. I always thought food was a good answer (to the question of, “what to get them?”) and so this year, I decided I could make a basket of quick breads with accompanying spreads (and maybe stick a DVD in the middle..?).

Problem is…what breads, and what spreads? They need to work together. I came up with the idea mostly thinking of when people want a little snack, they need something a “go-to” food. Something that feels like a treat but is not dessert. The primary inspiration starts with a loaf of Pumpkin Bread (with or without cranberries, with walnuts) and a jar of cranberry chutney. (since my mom makes a really good one). After some research on the web, here are some other contenders:

• Sweet Potato Bread
• Lemon Blueberry Bread
• Mediterranean Black Olive Bread
  
• Rosemary Bread Sticks

The last two are not “quick” breads but more traditional, requiring yeast to make dough. I personally am a bit daunted by that idea but I also liked the idea of more savory breads.

There is also the idea of an apple bread that you can eat with cheddar cheese. I still have to find a decent recipe for it. I found a website that obviously is maintained with a lot of love, however, I don’t know if I am willing to put that much work into the bread…

So this is a plea for help..Help! Does anyone have any other suggestions for a relatively quick bread or delicious spread that work together? Suggestions appreciated. If I am lucky (and I right now I am decidedly succumbing under the weight of a ton of work), I will make next weekend. Or else, there is always christmas day itself??

Candle lighting in observance of those who suffered in Mumbai

While I have been writing about some of the joys of our family’s Thanksgiving gathering, I must also express what a heavy heart I came home with due to the recent events in Mumbai, India. As some of you can guess, I turn to writing to express myself when I need it most. You can see an abbreviated version of my comments in one of the New York Times’ blogs called the Lede. A fuller letter, which I may still be working on, is hopefully full-letter-to-nyt.

I am deeply saddened by the utter senseless, deliberate and depraved killing and destruction that took place due to about two dozen determined madmen with assault weapons. I am also angry and upset. Tonight at 7:30 we lit candles in memory of those that suffered and for me, also those who are in some form of recovery. 

I want to be clear that I agree it is India’s 9-11. I also want to contribute to the dialogue on a few fronts. 

• A very good personal narrative on the Wall Street Journal makes the observation that there are no communal riots or violence following this incident in India. It is important to understand that these killers just killed. They did not stop to ask if someone was Muslim, or Indian, or Jewish. The reporting after the gunmen were quelled showed that they systematically went room to room and shot everyone, exempted no one. The citizenry also gets this was an onslaught on human life, and not limited to one group. People get this. The “noise” or fear in the system around Indian repercussions to Muslims is similar to those in the US about Arabs and Muslims post 9-11. Here, I never thought I would agree with Bill Kristol but he makes some points worthy of the occassion in his NYT column today.
•  Then there are those grousing that we can’t rush to judgement that it was a deliberate attack by Pakistan. True enough, but that’s not where the irony lies.
• The irony lies more in if its actually not a government sponsored attack. Simply put, there is culpability depending on a country’s willingness and ability to capture, clamp down, and hold accountable groups in its jurisdiction who are funded and organized around the sole mission of training terrorists and unleashing them to the world. Will the government be capable of launching an authentic investigation or will it handle it as yet another international media spectacle to orchestrate? It is adept at the latter, and there is not much evidence to show they are adept at the former.
• Which brings me to my ultimate point. Don’t mistake this for an Indian problem. This is very much an Indian, Israeli, American, Europe, etc problem. Its a global problem and a dangerous one. 

At times like this, when I most deeply troubled, I found some comfort from my faith.  The deeper solutions are much tougher to enact. As my friend, Erin, just wrote to me put it, “It becomes such a vicious circle though, doesn´t it? In Pakistan, I don´t think you can´t have development without a more open and modern society, and you can´t have a more open and modern society without economic and social development.”

Ultimately, evolutionarily, a right solution seems to be one that can ultimately provide productive outlets to harness the industry of these ambitious men. I wonder if it is akin to the drug “problem” we have in our inner cities. When I worked in West Philadelphia, a long-time tirelessly working school teacher said to me, “its the smart ones that they take.” She meant that it was the eager, keen minds among her young elementary and middle school charges, who seeing no opportunities for themselves (from their coner of the world), would chase opportunity through the drug trade. (You can start young by being a mule). It seems the same for the Somali pirates, based on what I have been reading.

But until we figure out how to tackle that problem, make no mistake, there must be consequences and punitive action brought to bear on this behavior, preferably with but perhaps without Pakistan’s cooperation.

A bowl, a whisk, a spatula, and a frying pan; or my first fusion dish ever!

I had fun with a new creation this morning. Its made with Indian crepes called cheelas. I was inspired to make it because I had made a savory filling for a tart over thanksgiving that I never ended up making. (Plus, though I brought the filling home, I left the crust in my sister’s fridge!) Cheela batter is healthier than regular crepe batter. Here I fused it with a traditional French (Provencal) based savory filling of red cabbage and onion.

The filling was for a cabbage and red onion tart from the Martha Stewart Living website (i provide the link here). I was nervous about serving a cabbage filling (kind of a departure for me i guess) but it came out wonderfully..sweet and a touch of vinegar-y. They ended up being a perfect compliment to the indian crepes (cheela(s)). Marvelous, and my first fusion concontion to boot! There are a few reasons why I thought it was valuable to share.

• Indian crepes are made out of chickpea flour (besan) so they are full of protein.

I checked the nutrition data tool (LOVE THIS!) and it says one cup of chick pea flour contains 21 grams of protein. I made 8 crepes which meant about 175 calories each for my husband and I, just for the crepes without the filling. The total distribution from these crepes are about 61% carbs, 25% protein and 14% fat. That is from the flour alone. It also seems to contain thyamine and is a good source of manganese and folate. So good for all you pregnant woman right?

• The batter does not contain fat. It contains spices, chopped up chili peppers and herbs (like cilantro) and it is thinned with water. Chick pea flour can be tricky to make tasty (I used to find it so) but with a few standard Indian spices, it is getting easier. I used the recipe from American Masala (of course) for the crepes (cheela). I am not going to duplicate the recipe here since I definitely encourage people buying this lovely book. I did add black pepper to the batter since my filling was something based in French flavors and i wanted to compliment that. But I also added garam masala and cumin seeds since I did not have some of ingredients on hand that he recommended. My mom has her own recipe but it saved me a phone call. I did want to say that over time, you will evolve your own mix of spices to add to the batter. You basically whisk the batter together to a thin pancake like consistency.
• Using Sarvan’s technique, I used only 1/4 tspn of oil for each crepe during cooking. As I progressed I was able to use less and less since the oil from the previous crepe would remain at the bottom of the pan to assist with the next one.
• Notes, tips and observation on cooking the crepes. I originally made the mistake of putting in way too much batter…i also subconsciously thought i had to put oil in the pan to cook the crepes. The whole thing just stuck together to the bottom of the frying pan like bad eggmaking can sometimes do. I had to scrape the whole thing off and start over! The second time I used a non-stick pan and heated it with no oil at the bottom. I was careful to use about 1/4 cup of batter like Sarvan suggested and quickly circled the batter from the center out to make it as large as possible. Once I did that I drizzled a 1/4 tsp of oil over it. and then I let it cook until the bottom turned golden brown. Now, I still have room for improvement. I need to learn to make the circles thinner and wider quickly. My crepes were likely smaller than they needed to be. The heat has to be right because the chick pea flour cooks quickly and while you want to get the bottom golden brown, you also want the get the whole thing dry on the top too. Still, i’m so happy with my first batch. I have never succeeded in getting them off the pan and these turned out to be eminently flippable.

Thanks to both Sarvan and Martha Stewart for my first fusion creation! This was a perfect breakfast/brunch dish coming home from Thanksgiving.

Cost per serving: Chick pea flour and cabbage and onion. Oh my god, this is like the mother of all staples. I am going to the math quickly on this, rather than too precisely. I included the price of the cabbage, red onion, 1 cup of besan flour, the thyme in the cabbage red onion filling, and the oil in the whole recipe for four servings (each serving is 2 stuffed crepes). I come up to $0.40 cents a serving

an attitude of gratitude (with lots of stuffing)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I have enjoyed games of SET and Boggle and we are now onto family scrabble. Its been a truly bountiful year and we feel quite blessed in our household.

After scaling down my Thanksgiving cooking projects, I put my energies into three dishes. I am providing links for two which were real crowd pleasers.

Bread and Fruit Stuffing, NYT

 Caramelized Onion and Olive Tart  (Martha Stewart Living)

The stuffing and tart were both very yummy. I make a different stuffing every year. This year I chose something filled with more classic flavors. It turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever made. The combination of flavors that really worked together was the apple cooking with the celery and then the sweet dried fruit (a fave flavor technique of mine, as seen by other posts) just spikes up the flavor another notch. First time using dried cherries and it won’t be the last. I added dried figs because I didn’t have dried apples. I also used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and did not really need to add any salt. But thank you NYT, I loved how this turned out and it was a real hit. It makes alot–easily ten cups if not more. I used organic vegetable broth from Whole Foods for $1.29.

The savory tart–I used a technique out of Provencal Light which says that the classic French Provencale tart also has you roast some garlic and then rub the juices of it on the tart dough before sticking in the oven. Definitely do this as a low cost flavor boost. I did splurge $1.99 for fresh thyme which was worth every penny. With frost and the patio herb gardening, we have lost our basil and most of our thyme so I bought. Otherwise, caramelizing onion is simply a delight. Its a very simple recipe and I felt that the flavors really took about 10 minutes after I turned off the stove. I did not add cheese. I also “cheated” and used ready made pie crust from Pillsbury ($2.50 on sale for two boxes (4 crusts). Here is a link to other savory tart recipes by Martha Stewart which look divine (and fun).

We also made the sweet potato and apple puree from a previous post. I will give it props for being very healthy–it used the basic flavor of the foods to derive the majority of the taste. But I must say, we needed more flavor, either in the form of brown suguar, cinnamon and nutmeg but otherwise, it was really quite pleasing. A much healthier alternative to candied yams, etc.  

Since its Thanksgiving I am forgoing nutritional analysis.
I am however updating this post to include cost per serving. Cost per serving for the bread and fruit serving is coming out to just under $0.90 cents a serving. The big splurge here was for the dried cherries. I included the cost of all ingredients.

Please let me know anything that you enjoyed, either making or eating!

Love, American Masala style: the Cauliflower

You may feel skeptical about using the word “love” to describe one’s relationship to the cauliflower, but you can easily fall in love with how simple it is to create something delicious using Indian spices with this recipe. The recipe is from American Masala, the cook book I have recommended in previous posts and the link to which you can find on my side bar. I am not even sure what I did qualifies as cooking…I used one bowl to combine several spices with oil, then coated the cauliflower pieces (with onion) and then baked in a baking dish at 450 degrees for 45 minutes. How easy was that? Super easy and super fragrant. Be sure to pause to revel in the spices after they ground and after they are mixed into the oil.

Cardamon Roasted Cauliflower

Here are the spices. Feel free to ask me any questions about them:

• Cardamom pods (green), 3
• Coriander seeds, 1 tbspn
• Cumin seeds, 1 tspn
• Dried red chilies, 3 (I used about a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes)
• Whole peppercorns, 1/2 tsp

Put all of this in a coffee grinder (or small food processor) until you have a fine powder. Then measure 1/3 cup of EVOO into a bowl. I used, as viewers of this blog know, grapeseed oil as substitution. I don’t mind using EVOO in this, just don’t have any on hand right now. Mix the spices into the oil (and inhale…). Then toss your cut up florets into the mixture and coat. Saran (the author) uses one whole head of cauliflower plus 1 medium size onion (sliced finely). Coat thoroughly and then place the vegetables in a baking tray and roast until they are tender at 450 degrees. He says about an hour and I found it was done in about 45 to 50 minutes. Sprinkle with kosher salt and serve. I wonder if it would add flavor to it if you chopped up an herb like cilantro finely and also mixed it in the oil/spice mix. Even without it, the flavors just pop in your mouth. I do love that part of the American Masala style!

Price per serving: for a generous serving I would say $0.71 cents a serving. This includes the price of the cauliflower and the oil, the two prime ingredients. It is a tad expensive and its because cauliflower is expensive and I used organic cauliflower to boot. As usual, the price doesn’t include spices because I do believe these are an investment unless you are able to buy them in bulk. (In which case, more power to YOU). Any suggestions on how to lower the price are welcome.

Thanksgiving feast

I would love for people over the coming week to share any recipes that they are excited about making. I am actually going to take it a tad easy this year as my energies are going to other outlets. I am contemplating something with poached pears…I will make potatoes masala from the American Masala cookbook (my mom’s request) and maybe pumpkin soup.

Sweet Potato Puree with Apples

Sweet potato puree (Margaret Rose Shulman, NYT)

This recipe caught my eye because it looked almost like a sweet potato pudding and also because I loved that it could be served out of a fun glass. People love being served anything out of little cups, wine glasses, or martini glasses! This is also from Margaret Rose Shulman from the NYT!

Ode to the Fig

Recipes seem to be one of the areas where people’s creativities, passion, and energies are alive and well on the internet. Figs were kind of reintroduced to my life last summer when we went to visit our friends Lindsay and Derek in Atlanta (shout out, Hi!) and Lindsay baked us this beautiful cake full of figs picked ripe from a laden tree in her yard. Simple and extremely yummy. it does seem like God gave it a hefty dose of succulence…so, what is the best way to enjoy this fruit? There are seemingly endless ways. I did want to highlight a new blog on this site, called A Mingling of Tastes. I loved her post on the fig.

Fresh Figs from A Mingling of Tastes food blog

Well worth checking out–she has excellent pictures and steps for each process. She has three recipes to make up her self described menage a trois:

• Fresh Figs
• Fig and Goat Cheese Tart
• Fig Pizza!

Now, I wanted to add my own recent experience. A little heat goes a long way to caramelize the insides and make something that could be a little dry become succulent and juicy. I can also recommend making a potage with dried figs, using it with meat. For example, we made a thai massaman curry this week.

• 1 can of massaman curry from the Asian store, it came with potatoes
• Big chunks of chopped carrots
• Potatoes in the same size (if the curry mix doesn’t come with it)
• Dried figs cut in half
• Chicken thighs, skinless
• Simmer until cooked and serve over rice (we used brown basamati)

I am betting other vegetables like cauliflower or other dried fruit like apricots would work well in this too. I just let it simmer and simmer until the chicken was cooked and the carrots were tender. The flavors were highly complimentary. The potatoes soak up the heat of the curry which is helpful to our little tongues when eating. But the carrots and the figs add a sweetness. I was most pleased with the texture of the figs after cooking. I had dried figs which i had kept air tight for nearly a year! they were pretty dry and hard when i started. I managed to cut them. after steaming in the heat though, the insides were almost like a fig newton – dark, thick, sweet. Just a great play on flavors. So there you are, a wonderful job on fig from someone else’s blog and our own modest recipe at home this week. One note on the Massaman can of curry from the asian store though. it had a ton of oil. Much of it easily separated from the main mass of congealed spices which is the essence of the curry, so we ladled more than a half-cup out for our own sanity.

Price for this may take some figuring out. I made about 5 servings, not counting the rice. I think its probably under $2 a serving but will do the math and post it when I do!

An Eventful Passage

The first three weeks I was away from writing this blog, it was mostly because I was pretty sick (taking two doses of antibiotics), then because I was busy preparing for a vacation and then because I was on a vacation for 10 days. That vacation in itself was something to write about because I went, with my husband, to Hawaii, for the first time ever. I would like to write about that in a separate post. We went to the Big Island and Kauai and ended up in some pretty remote, undeveloped spots. Let’s just say it was a healthy reminder of how small and human I am! It was wonderful, calming, even restful.

Coming back, my workload has increased dramatically from the summer. I would say I am in a test period (or at least, that is what it feels like); I had so much time this summer because my workload was not demanding and as a result, I was at peace, I had energy and I found inlets and outlets of ways to feed myself (physically, spiritually, mentally). I had been hoping that all those habits could find a foundation and keep growing through what I knew were going to be busy times. Why did I know they were going to be busy? Because I have been wanting to be involved in opportunities that use my talents for a while now. and if everything I was doing to ask for it was going to work, I was going to be getting busy. And the other area that got “busy” is social activities. For the last 3 years, we have stuck pretty close to our inner circles, not really spending money, time or energy on acquaintenances or even professional relationships. November is changing that too. So its a tricky tricky time. I have made very little time to cook, instead relying on my mom’s leftovers and who knows what. The challenge on all fronts is to keep asking the same questions. In the midst of the responsibilities I have taken on, what feeds me? What gives me energy versus what drains it? I am obviously on shaky ground, I find myself quite sick once again, my body begging for rest. I have allowed myself to indulge in some old stresses at work in hopes of working out good solutions for my client. that doesn’t feed me. i’m not sure what to do about it though.

the weekend after coming back from hawaii was great. we were so calm and so together and so happy to be home, it took us very little time to get settled back in the house. We had been moving around quite a bit on the vacation and so we had gotten very good at keeping track of our stuff. So getting it back in the house was a no brainer. The house was totally uncluttered and we spent the weekend reconnecting to our home, our TO-DOs did not seem like a brick wall we kept bumping our heads against, they just got done peacefully. gosh how i long for that. the following week at work was wonderful, some new highs.

but then, beginning Halloween, a nose dive. Complete drop down off the cliffs in terms of my personal energy levels. Life turned into a lot of running around. YUCK. Sleep deprivation began. i can’t figure out how or when to stop but its not working. its causing me to enjoy my time less on all fronts–social, otherwise. so, as laurel used to say to hardy, “this is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!”

Some shining moments: World Series, GO PHILADELPHIA!!!!! I am so happy for that town. Another was Election Night. I have been on FB to share in the collective glory. We had a wonderful evening with friends. We were all beaming by the end. Instead of Yes we Can; Yes We Did. It feels wonderful to beat back the tide of executive secretship, beat back any more Dick Cheney time, to have someone as our leader who values education and achieves excellence. Personally for me, it hits very close to home that this leader was influenced by Saul Alinsky and the principles of community organizing, as I was in my life. Its kind of a wake up reminder actually. It was a beautiful night and my husband and I were able to go to the White House and participate in the spontaneous block party that erupted there. But the hard work begins now, bringing everyone to the table, whether they were for or against Obama to make sure they work constructively to bring this country back.

And now I get to the point of this post which I only have a couple more minutes to write. I am woefully late posting this since it was written in October. However, if there is one person who speaks for many of the principles on which this blog was conceived, it is Michael Pollan. I have mentioned him and at least one of this books previously on this blog. Pollan has written an open letter to the President-Elect. I am a big fan of his writing. Its not just what he writes about, its how he writes it. His writing is so clear and objective. Each sentence links to form garlanded paragraphs.  In this letter, he shows the President-Elect how health care costs, energy independence, and climate change are all linked to food policy. Its a marvelous piece and a must-read. Definitely gets to my issues with the supply chain of our food and the trade-offs we’ve endured in order to have our food produced from the industrialization process to keep it cheap.

By the way, if anyone wants to give their input or vision for the new administration, you can simply go to www.change.gov  Yes, we can.

Great tool

This is a shout out to a valuable tool I found on the internet. I haven’t fully analyzed it yet but it has a boat load of nutritional information on most generic foods. It goes beyond the traditional “food label” (it has that too) and provides useful charts and graphs. My favorite right now is the amino acid structure of a food and how to complement it in order to receive your full protein in-take. Does that rock or what? it also highlights the wealth of vitamins and other nutrients that your food may have. It works for me at the ingredient level, rather than what I’ve made out of that meal.

A turning point – no to deprivation

I also need to say that a significant turning point in my dieting journey was when I made a decision to no long feel “deprived” in my eating habits. Its true. It just doesn’t work to feel we are depriving ourselves of something. So I stopped making arbitrary rules about banning certain foods or nutrients. That helped me to make choices, instead of feeling like I had met or broken these rules. the latter can just feel empty whereas the former, easily more fulfilling. So dessert has become mostly ok BUT in very small bites and only when something is worth tasting. Not just to feel sugar on my tongue. Being choosy has its advantages.

The best choice I made was to eliminate sugar because it really has an impact on me. Eliminating sugar keeps me more balanced and (i don’t know why) leaves me more clear, less foggy. Because of these benefits, it doesn’t feel like deprivation anymore. Instead, its something I am giving myself. That’s just me, my reaction. I choose to use Stevia to boot, a natural product made of tree bark that doesn’t have the molecular formation or glucose reaction that refined sugar does. It obviously makes me feel better and so it was simpler after that to just want dessert in moderation. Again, holding out for very tempting desserts is quite pleasing!