Good Real Food

I don’t know about you, but I have been trying to think of ways to cut down our food budget as things are tight and all the current events are causing me to draw on my Dutch genes that tell me to plan for the worst. So, I have been finding ways to cook with what is in the house and garden and waiting way longer than I usually would to restore the food supplies. Apples are abundant and if you save the one expensive honey crisp for a raw sliced dessert and use the other less expensive ones for cooking, you can make a $7 bag of apples go a long way. When I was a kid we had four apple trees in our back yard. Every year we made apple cider, dried apples, and my favorite, apple sauce. We were not allowed store bought sweets in our house, so I made up snacks for myself using plain yogurt and apple sauce that is still one of my favorite things to eat, though my family thinks it looks gross. Apple sauce is perhaps one of the easiest things you will ever make, and it freezes really well so you can enjoy hot apple sauce in the dead of winter.

Slice and core (but do not peel) as many apples as you have around and put them in a large pot. Cover with water and simmer until soft. Place cooked apples in a food processor or food mill and make the consistency you want. Chunky-fine. Return mixture to the pot, add sugar and cinnamon to taste. Freeze in air tight containers.

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Scrambled eggs have a publicity problem. They are taken for granted to be boring, hurried, week day morning affairs with two eggs tossed together in the pan with nothing to keep them company. Or, they are the cold slabs of congealed bland eggs we often find in buffet lines as we scan ahead for the baked goods, or (please please!) the fresh crab legs. Today I am on a mission to put the scrambled egg dish back at the center of the weekend brunch. Forget the pancakes…who wants to be standing over a hot stove flipping those little buggars all morning and then feel their heaviness in the heat of the afternoon?

Eggs are the most versatile of all foods, and they go well with almost anything, so you can really use them to highlight seasonal vegetables and herbs and to try out different spice combinations. The trick to really good scrambled eggs is to, first, use the very best fresh local eggs possible. Second, you want to cook them over low heat, patiently moving them around the pan with a spatula as they cook. The rest is all about getting creative with what you put in them. The scramble I made this morning highlighted what is available right now in our garden and locally, so lots of basil, zucchini, tomatoes, chives, spring onions, and garlic scapes. Inspired by Simon Hopkinson, I also added fried bread cubes at the end.

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I snared a waffle iron at Savers yesterday - I love 50% off purple tag days.

I rushed home to scour the interwebs for waffle recipes and after reading a bunch of stuff, decided on a thinner version of what I already use for pancakes, thinking that if the waffle iron didn’t work, I could punt and make pancakes pretty quickly.

So, the good: the waffles were great, the iron worked perfectly, and my family was very happy.

The bad: as is the case when I’m making anything that is best fresh, I had the pleasure of hovering over the waffle iron while my family chowed down.  I suppose it is a small price to pay for happy bellies.

The ugly: whoever designed this thing did so with almost no regard for cleaning it.  I now understand why it was so cheap at Savers.  To say that it is ugly is an understatement, but I suspect that a little quality time with a toothbrush and some baking soda will take care of matters.  Still, it does sort of make me long for some cast iron goodness.

For what its worth, my pancake recipe is here and these are the changes I made: no yogurt, more milk, and canola oil instead of butter, along with an additional teaspoon of baking powder.  Enjoy

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Make crepes!

I’ll admit, I’m probably more proud of this than I should be, but I was faced with a dilemma this morning and think I killed two birds with one stone in a rather nice way.
My dilemma - my daughter and I were planning a bike trip to the farmers market this morning along with other assorted errands. Given that I had no idea how long we’d be, I thought a picnic lunch somewhere along the way would be smart. The problem was that the cupboard was really bare - not even bread to make some sandwiches.

I was puzzling over this as I made pancakes for breakfast. My wife and daughter reached their “full” point and I still had pancake batter left over - happens all the time around here. So, I just thinned it out with more milk and the end result are the crepes you see above. Filled with either turkey and cheese or PB & J, they were the perfect lunch food and made excellent use of what would otherwise likely have gone to waste.

I’ve been making my pancakes from scratch for about the last year, and while there are many recipes, this is the one that I generally “orbit” around - making modifications as I see fit, but generally sticking near to the following:

1. one egg, beaten
2. 3/4 cup of milk
3. 3 or 4 tablespoons of yogurt
4. 1 tablespoon of melted butter
5. 1 cup of flour - whatever kind you have and/or a mix of flours like all-purpose, whole wheat, rye, spelt
6. 2 teaspoons baking powder
7. 1 teaspoon salt

Method: combine your dry ingredients in one bowl, you wet in the other, and mix your wet into your dry and stir to combine. Add more of the wet or dry (so either milk, yogurt, or flour) to adjust the consistency to your liking. Crank up the heat (to medium-ish) under your cast iron pan and go to town - pour or ladle batter into pan, when top get bubbly, flip and cook other side for a few more minutes. I toss mine on a plate in the oven to keep them a bit warmer while the stack cooks. Serve with syrup, fresh fruit, or whatever else suits your fancy.

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Arif wrote earlier about a great recipe he found using wild and domestic mushrooms roasted with potatoes. I thought, why not use the same concept with butternut squash? So here is the result! It tasted wonderful with our eggs this morning.

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As a working parent, though I do try to whip up fantastic breakfasts for my family, things don’t always work that way.  Sometimes, the kid crawls into bed and you’re just so warm and comfy that you both end up sleeping later than anticipated.  So, I file this one under “real” and “food” and leave the decision about “good” up to you.

Faced with about 30 minutes to get the kid fed, dressed, and on the way to school, I took mental stock of the fridge on the way downstairs and came up with this:

Reheated hard-boiled eggs, toast, sausage.  Here’s the fancy footwork

I took two previously boiled eggs that were sitting in the fridge and stuck them in a bowl while the electric tea kettle was filling.  After starting the kettle, I tossed a couple sausage on the stove, and started those going.  Finally, I sliced the bread for toast.

About that time, the tea kettle boiled so I poured off water for my tea and poured the rest into the bowl holding the eggs.

wait a few minutes

Then I drank my tea, started the toast, and right about the time the two were finishing, I was plating the sausage, and shelling the eggs (whose peels slipped right off due to the immersion in water).

Couple of pats of butter on the kids toast, couple of dashes of olive oil on mine, and were sitting down to eat breakfast.

Was it my best effort?  No.  But I shared the story because sometimes reality demands that we make some compromises.  And to be honest, I think I did pretty good here - the kid got a good hot meal, and we got out the door on time.  Sure, it wasn’t the french toast I made this morning, but it was still pretty darn good.

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Emily, one of the writers on this blog was coming over this morning for brunch, so the pressure was on a bit. . . I mean, not really but, you know how it is.

Anyway, given that I wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary, I decided on the wonderful mushroom alchemy which I’ve mentioned previously, along with baked eggs via a recipe I found on the web. I figured those two along with chicken sausage to satisfy the meat eaters and toast made from my version of the NY Times no-knead loaf would round out the meal nicely. And they did. Pictures and more commentary below:

The eggs were far easier than they looked or tasted - both big pluses in my book. They’re so simple, they’re not even worth a detailed recipe see: take your eggs, about one per person and beat them with a bit of milk or cream, much like you would for scrambled eggs. Add some salt and pepper to the mix as well. Grab a muffin tin, and grease (preferably with butter) one muffin depression per person you want to serve eggs to. Pour your eggs in, filling the cups about 3/4 full and top each with a about 1.5 Tbsps of grated cheese - Swiss, sharp Cheddar, Gruyere, or other similar cheese would all be good. Fill the empty muffin depressions with water to ensure that the pan heats evenly and pop it into an oven that you’ve heated to 400 degrees, and bake till the eggs puff up and get a bit golden. Scoop out and serve with whatever you deem appropriate. In my case, it was this medley of mushrooms and potatoes, roasted till the potatoes crisp and the flavors meld in a way that is magic. Seriously, you’ve got to try it to believe it - it is definitely one of those recipe where 2 + 2 = 5.

I got this recipe via Lindy’s Toast, so head on over there to check it out.  If you’re inclined, I took vaguely step by step photos you can see by clicking on the picture above.

Emily brought over some marmalade that rounded things out perfectly, and that was brunch.  My timing on the eggs was a bit off - or at least the little one decided she was hungry prior to it all hitting the table, but nevertheless, I think it was a pretty decent effort for an hour of cooking on a Sunday morning.

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It has always been sort of a family tradition to sleep in a bit on a Saturday and wake up to pancakes. It is a special treat, takes a bit more time in the morning, but making them always puts me in a great mood. I have played with variations on this recipe wanting to get away from ho hum, all white flour or heavy leaden pancakes and reach some ballance of healthy amd light, filling and yummy. I have been inspired by the wonderful cooks at Hollyhock http://www.hollyhock.ca/cms/page1590.cfm

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/4 cup corn meal
• 1/4 cup wheat germ or ground flax seed flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
• 2 egg yolks beaten
• 3-4 tbsp melted butter or sunflour oil
• 1 tbs lemon, lime, or orange zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1. In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients

2. crack the two eggs, whites in one bowl, yolks in with the dry ingredients.

3. beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

4. Mix the remailing wet ingredients in with the dry, then fold in the egg whites.  Cook in a medium-hot lightly oiled skillet keeping pankakes warm on a plate in a warm oven as you go. Serve with local maple syrup, fruit and yogurt.

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