A Jersey Girl in Portland

Organic Winter Beet Soup (Borscht)

Beautiful pink soup. Lovely to look at, delightful to eat.

Since the word Borscht sounds so harsh and ethnic, I'll call it winter beet soup instead.

Winter Beet Soup

6 ea medium beets

3 ea star anise pods

water and Mirror Pond Pale Ale in a 2:1 ratio to partially cover the beets.

Combine above and roast for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

When cooked, peel and medium dice the beets, reserving the roasting liquid. Set aside. I suppose you could substitute two cans of beets but they're so easy to roast, why not just use fresh?

Ingredients (continued)

1 qt stock (beef or chicken)

2 onions, medium dice

2 carrots, medium dice

2 Tbsp olive oil

4 Tbsp butter

1.5 cups creme fraiche (or sour cream)

Saute onions and carrot in olive oil. Add stock and beets. Simmer for 1 hour.

Add beet roasting liquid, butter and sea salt TT. Heat thoroughly. Serve with generous dollop of creme fraiche on the top with a side of thick, dark bread.

Note: If you look into the toilet after eating a lot of beets and see something odd you're not bleeding internally. Red beets tend to stain your bowel movements and urine a startling shade of red.

Creme fraiche is easy to make. Combine 1 ounce fresh lemon juice to one cup heavy cream. Allow to stand for 8 - 12 hours.

do svidaniya

 

 

 

 

 

Spam Musubi

Musubi, Spam sushi, is as ubiquitous in Hawaii as PB&J is in the rest of the country. It's a snack, a meal, a late night munchie and hors d'oeuvres. I've been to Hawaii, and never quite 'got' the state's obsession with the stuff. I'm told it's because service men and women had easy access to it at the PX. It's cheap and filling.

As a kid, we ate spam from time to time and I never much liked it. It tasted like being poor, reminding me of hand-me-down clothing and tuna-noodle casserole.

Then the BF and I started camping. One of his fav breakfasts is fried spam and eggs. I made it, but resisted eating it for many camping trips. Then one morning we were camping at the beach in Port Orford and I was hungry. So I ate spam. And it was OK. Really, not that bad. 

Back to the present. I wrote a Facebook (and blog) post a few days ago about running into a fellow Farmers Market volunteer at the grocery store. Me with a cart full of spam and other camping food, she with veggies and tea.

It set off a flurry of posts. One from a Hawaiian cook acquaintance of mine named Chris. He introduced me to Musubi via a You Tube video. If you want to make it, just follow the instructions in the video. The most difficult part was making the spam-can mold. I used a scissors to cut the bottom out of the can and folded the sharp edges down with plyers.

So I made Spam Musubi. And it was delicious. Freaking delicious. Over the course of a couple days I ate it all. It's so much better than the sum of its parts.

Now, I get strange cravings for sushi rice, fried spam and nori.

So good. Try it.

Mahalo!

Spam in my cart

So I was at Freddies a couple of minutes ago, shopping for a camping trip. I had the usual camping food in my basket; spam, top ramen, dehydrated mashed potatoes, beans, and lunch meat.

Wel... don't I run into one of the other Portland Farmers Market volunteers. While we chatted, she took a look at my stuff. I realized what she saw. Me, Ms-cooks-a-lot, no-processed-food, farmers-market person with a cart full of junk. It was pretty damn funny watching me 'splain my way out of THAT mess!

 

 

PS: She was totally cool. But had nothing but veggies and tea in her cart.

Crazy about Polenta

I had a pantry disaster the other day. I opened the door to the tall cupboard and the innards just exploded. Jars tumbled out, and spice bottles toppled like dominos. Onions rolled across my uneven kitchen floor as if trying to excape the mayham. It was time for a major pantry purge.

I consolidated the dry goods, and tossed some old beans and questionable canned goods.

Purge I will, but I Refuse to discard any one of my six, count 'em six kinds of polenta.

Left to right we have: Roy's Calais flint corn polenta, heavy-duty meal from the bulk bins at Freddy's, generic corn meal, three pounds of Amish Butter corn polenta, Gee Creek Farms corn flour, Gee Creek Farm corn meal.

I think I'll have polenta for lunch. Maybe with greens and a poached egg.

Never Surrender!

 

Bread = love

"Everyday Whole Wheat Bread"

Entered by: PDX Cookie (my AllRecipes.com name)

This is one of the easiest and most satisfying yeast-risen breads I've ever made. It rises quickly, proofs quickly, and bakes in only 20 minutes (for a small loaf).
I call it 'every day' bread because it's easy enough to make once or twice a week and eat every day.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups warm water
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/3 cup honey
3 cups AP flour
2 cups whole wheat flour

3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon salt
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons butter, melted
sea salt TT

DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey.  Add 3 cups AP 
flour, and 2 cups whole wheat flour and stir to combine.  Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt.  Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour.  Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch.  This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough.  Cover with a dishtowel.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
Punch down, and divide into 4 loaves.  Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes; do not overbake.  Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter when done to prevent crust from getting hard.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Cool completely
FOOTNOTES:
I used four 8-1/2 x 4 loaf pans.

Pierogies (Polish stuffed dumplings)

When I was a kid growing up in eastern Pennsylvania, I had a friend named Connie Piskula. Connie's family was what we called, "old world."  Her folks had one foot in Fullerton (our neighborhood), and one in Europe. In her case, Poland.

Every summer her Nana came to visit for a few weeks. Nana was a formidable woman. She wore sensible shoes, dark stockings, a simple skirt and blouse and a babushka, or shawl-sized head scarf. It denoted her position as a tribal elder and a widow. I'm sure she spoke english, but not well.

The womenfolk of Connie's family spend a couple of days each summer making  pierogi.

I tasted one once and it was like a bite of heaven. Tender pasta with a stiff potato filling, dripping with melted butter. Because making these dumplings is such an ordeal (really, it's no harder than ravioli) they were reserved for special occasions.

Last week I had a craving for pierogi, so I made some. The first batch was lovely -- but I gave most of them away.

So I made another batch. Oh my, still delicious. Here's the recipe I used with my adaptations.

Pierogi (Polish dumplings)

Adapted from TAB on Allrecpies.com

Yield: 45 - 50 dumplings.

Dough

3 eggs

6 oz creme fraich or sour cream

3 c AP flour

1Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Beat eggs and creme fraich. Sift dry ingredients

Stir eggs and cream into dry ingredients. Knead until firm and smooth, about 10 minutes. Rest for 20 minutes. Cut in half. Roll 1/2 of the dough to 1/8 inch.  Cut rounds. Using fingers or a dumpling press, fold dough over filling, moisten the seal with water. Press closed.

Fillings

Cabbage

2 Cups chopped cabbage

1/3 cup minced onion

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp olive oil

salt to taste

Heat oil. Add butter. Saute onions until fully fragrant. Add cabbage and cook until cabbage is warm and par cooked.

Sauerkraut

1/4 cup minced onion

1-1/1/2 cups sauerkraut chopped

1 Tbsp butter

salt to taste

Melt butter. Saute onion until translucent. Add kraut. Cook until warm. Drain

Potato

2 cups mashed potatoes

1/3 cup grated parmesan

salt to taste

Mix potatoes and grated parm. Add salt to taste.

The dumps are easy to assemble. Put about 1.5 teaspoons of filling into each round of dough, 4 inches in diameter. Moisten edges of the round with water. Pinch closed.

Boil in potato water (if available) and water, or salted water for three minutes. Remove and cool on cooling rack.

There are numerous ways to re heat pierogi. They can be baked, boiled or fried. Baking the pierogis give a crunch to the crust but makes them dry. Boiling works well  and is probably easiest. Fried or boiled and fried is the classic preparati on. T op with sauteed green onions and butter. Or boil for three minutes and serve topped w ith butter.

Many Eastern European countries call some form of the pierogi as do the Italian, Chinese and German. The Germans add spinach. Yum!

Winter is a good time for hearty, stick-to-your-ribs food.

Bon Apetit!