Chocolate Schwarzbrot (Blackbread)

This is truly a bread and not a cake.  It is a decadent and lovely bread, but make no mistake it is an adult's delight.  This recipe makes 2 loaves

You'll need:
3 Cups Organic kamut/khorasan flour  - Two names for the same flour.
2 1/2 Cups white unbleached flour
1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
1/2 Scant Cup Cocoa powder
2 TBSP finely ground dark roast coffee I used Italian Roast Stumptown (a local roaster here, chances are there is a good one near you)
1/3 Cup vegan sugar (or demerara or other raw sugar or other less refined) you wont want to skip this little bit as the darkness of the real chocolate needs a hint of lightening and this doesn't make the bread in anyway too sweet.
1 egg both yolk and whites (you can replace with butter or oil but a good sized egg is a perfect amount so it seems a bit more difficult to get right with anything else.  Go easy on oil as it can make your bread a little oily like a cake.)
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
A tiny handful -1/4 Cup of the darkest chocolate chips you can find.  At least 70 % cocoa solids chop and fold in while kneading.

Approx. 2 1/2 Cups Tepid water and 2 heaping tsp yeast
I dissolve the yeast into 2 cups and add water as I go so there isn't too much.  If there is too much just add more flour.

Run all dry ingredients through a sieve or flour sifter.  Do the coffee alone through the sieve so you can throw out any large chunks, you want just the dustiest pieces to go through.

Mix all ingredients.

Turn out dough onto floured surface, knead until nice and elastic.  Cut into two equal pieces. Knead and ball up then let rest on floured surface and sprinkle lightly with flour and cover with a clean towel to rise.  I like to let it rise twice for half an hour at a time.  Knead in a sprinkle more flour and lightly shape to your pan's shape, flour top and cover again for the second rise for another 30 minutes.  Your oven should be preheating at this point to 480-500 degrees. Grease your bread pan.  I used pork fat, but butter or olive oil should work as well.  Bake for 20 minutes (watch it closely and remember the top will look darker than normal bread like it is burned, but it is just the darkness of the ingredients).

Let sit for a couple minutes in the pan and remove by turning over.  Bread should slide out easily.  Knock lightly on the bottom and it should sound hollow.  Done.  Das ist alles!  Let rest for 5 minutes at least!  The center will do a lot of finishing in this time, it is vital.  If you cannot wait and rip into it, at least place cut side down against the board as this will let the rest finish and keeps moisture in. ;)

I served this bread alongside lavender raspberry pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes over rice and a big glass of mead.  This bread is substantial enough to have for breakfast with coffee or a strong tea.

Excellent for cheese sandwiches with some good beer! Not kidding!

So...

Bialys

A thing of beauty.

Bialys ( bee ah lee ) are so often said to be "like a bagel" they are in that they are also round.  Bialys are chewy, airy and have a little raft-like cavity which holds whatever you'd like in there.  They haven't the girth or time bending density of bagels - They are a kind little thing.

Traditional fillings will be a smattering of garlic, or onions, poppy seeds or any mixture of these.  You can make them sweet instead of savory and you can make them cheesy or meaty.  They have a short baking time so the only rule to what goes in them is that it should either be somewhat previously cooked or cook within the same time as the bialy.  For these I very gently cooked minced onions in olive oil on low until translucent and then added a pinch of salt and poppy seeds to them.

For these little guys I make a dough that goes into the refrigerator and sits at least overnight.  This same dough is the base for a lot of delicious things.  I'll mention those later.  I start the dough just like a quick bread; so flour(s), salt,water, yeast which is spoon blended for a couple minutes.  Scraped out onto a floured surface and kneaded for another 4 minutes and then a sealable container with twice the volume of what you are putting into it.  Cover the bottom of the container with olive oil and coat the sides and the interior rim of the lid.  This will make sure the sough releases from the container when you remove some for rising.

What you need:

2 Cups whole wheat flour
2 Cups unbleached white flour
1 and 3/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp yeast
1 heaping tsp sea salt

Mix thoroughly the flours.  Sprinkle salt in and mix.  Put yeast into the lukewarm water.  Combine all to make a dough and if a little wet add some flour or if a little dry sprinkle touches of lukewarm water in until mostly just held together.  Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth and balled up well.

Your fridge container should have double volume of your dough for expansion.  Oil it and the lid and place dough inside container.

Let stand overnight.  Or at least 2 hours.  Planning ahead always makes it quicker.
 ...
After a couple hours in the fridge you'll notice the dough getting softer and happier.  The next day the dough will be full of lovely holes. You can leave the dough in the refrigerator up to 3 days before who knows what happens.  After that it could turn into running shoes, I don't know.  It will gain in a "sour" flavor.  Which I LOVE, but isn't for everyone. The first few days wont be an intense flavor, just more like a real bakery's bread rather than the pale versions that quicker breads give. 1-3 days and it is chewy, moist, and steadily becomes more like a sourdough.  Now you have enough dough to make 2 batches of bialys. Or 1 batch of bialys and really 2-4 kick ass pizzas, flatbreads, pitas.  This dough is amazing.  Airy and chewy.  Either way you choose to go it is nice to leave at least half the dough for the following day.  No matter what if you use up the second half take a small handful of dough from it and leave it in the container.  This is your poolish.*

The best thing about this is that you will have bread ready to start anyday you want it by keeping some in the fridge!  Every other night I make a batch and put it in the fridge.  Each time I take out some for a recipe I make sure I always leave at least a handful of dough to "start" the next batch with.  *This is a poolish.  The poolish makes a safisticated bread always lending it's wisdom to the next batch making sure to pass on its flavor.  This is another thing bread bakers use to make such tasty bread. *

If/when you go straight from the fridge this dough will be approximately halved for the following photos and the remainder put back into the fridge.  You'll knead and shape it on a floured surface, let it rest while you work on other things for a few minutes under a towel (15 or so to take the chill out)  then pat and shape into a square like below to measure out however many bialy you wish it to make this does 16, 2 inch bialy or 8 monster bialy.  

This tool is for dough cutting and is worth every penny.  I recommend them, they also scrape clean your work surface.

I bundle the shapes from squares into circles.  Watch the video for a more detailed explanation.

My monkey mitten working it's magic.

Holy crap, I'm a wizard.

These will now rise for 30-45 (it likes longer - upto an hour and half but this can be rushed if you need. Longer equals softer) minutes in a warmish kitchen (or place near a warming oven).  The dough will crust over a touch, I ignore it but you can sprinkle/mist the tops with a little water or oil to prevent this.  A few (10-20) minutes before shaping PREHEAT OVEN TO 480

I lightly flour the pan with unbleached flour and then shape the bialy.  I simply press my thumbs into the center of the ball and scoot the ball around in my hand like a teeny tiny steering wheel keep a fat ring around the outer edge and making a thin center well.  The center will be very thin and translucent when held up to the light.  Tears in the dough don't matter too much and you can stretch it to make the bialy a touch wider.  The center should be an inch - two inches. 

Bialy, like most bread loves a hot oven.  These since they are so tiny will only take 5-7 minutes max.  Always check around 5 to make sure they aren't in there up to no good.  They should feel a touch firm when poked and have nice coloring.  The flours browness is a good indicator too.  It will be russet where the bread isn't.  After a few moments out of the oven the once firm bialys become soft and chewy.

Empanadas - samosas, pakoras, Cornish pasty, Jamaican "meat" pie

White Whole Wheat with cayenne, cherry bomb, paprika, potato, yam, sweet pea, onion with olive oil, honey and dried serrano pepper sauce.

 So many countries like to claim this little pastry as their own creation.   I would, if I were a country.  These can be fried like a samosa or pakora, but baked is easier, cleaner and still very delicious.  The filling can be dinner things or dessert things to make them turnovers.  They can be crescent moon shape or little purse shaped.  Whole wheat or white.  Glazed with sugar or with salt. The possibilities are innumerable.

This vegan based dough is just like a tortilla dough. Flour, salt, baking soda, olive oil and water.  The best part is that the dough cooks around the filling so you can skip the extra step of cooking tortillas like you would for wraps, pizzas, gyros or tacos.

Preheat oven to 400

• 1 and 1/2 Cup whole wheat flour (you can do 50/50 white and WW or do just white.  I find whole wheat is a little easier to work with for these so it can help with manageability)
• 1/2 tsp Sea salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1-2 TBSP olive oil (it doesn't require much)
• Just enough hot water to combine everything. You don't want the dough too soupy or wet, you just want it to grab the loose flour from the sides of the bowl.

This will make approximately 10-12 empanadas if you roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thickness and use a 2 inch cutter.  I use a little mason jelly jar for my biscuit cutter.  Roll out or finger press each little circle until as wide and as thin as you wish.  Using a spoon scoop filling into center side of pocket and bring edges together and crimp/press edges.  If it isn't catching and staying then wet one of the sides and go again. 

These cook very quickly so you cannot count on undercooked or crunchy things to cook inside the dough at best it makes it's filling toasty warm. So whatever you choose to fill them with should be nearly as cooked as you wish it to be.

I will chop veggies into tiny cubes so a lot of variety can fit into the little pockets.

Favorite fillings are:

Sweet potato, potato, onion, pressed garlic, oregano, Hungarian paprika, sea salt saute everything until just under firm.  Once the empanadas come out of the oven plate them with a drizzle of honey or agave or whatever sauce you have prepared.

Potato, sweet peas, onion, pressed garlic, pinch cinnamon, nutmeg.  Drizzle of tamarind sauce. Or yogurt

BBQ -ed anything

Pear, sauteed onion or shallots, goat cheese.  Served with arugula and figs

Chutneys and peppers served with yogurt

Whiskeyed up apple pie  - apple chunks, cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla and of course simmered in a shot or two of whiskey.  For color you can do an egg wash with cinnamon, and allspice. Or glaze with brown sugar after baking.

Jalapeno, yogurt cheese and chicken or steak and/or blended peppers.

Potato, bacon, chives, cheddar. served with yogurt.

Hard boiled egg slice, sliced olives, peppers and chicken. Served with a mole sauce or roasted garlic and dried peppers.

Duck, apricot, yogurt cheese or goat cheese.  Served with a wine or port sauce.

If you want a more bodied dough like a pastry or if you want it to have more decorative capabilities then you'll need to make a pie crust type of dough where you must freeze or chill between workings so that the butter holds together.  Something like say a braided rope end on the empanada's shape.  As it is you can crimp the ends closed in many fashions.  Pastry dough just holds designs better.  But it is the butter and consistant chill times that allow for the more elaborate decorations.

Yum!

Oven roasted herbed potatoes and carrots with pan fried Zucchini spears

When it comes to dinner, I like things savory, spicy and hearty.  So, when I am imagining a menu, I try and find things that satisfy these cravings but are also simple and relatively quick to make.   This entry is going to detail one of my very favorite easy-to-cook meals.  I sometimes refer to these as "man meals" because they can be made just as easily on a camp stove as a regular oven, and bachelors with virtually no cooking skills can throw together a meal that is sure to impress a dinner guest.

There are four components to this menu:  roasted root veggies, pan fried zucchini, mixed greens and a ketchup-like tomato sauce for dipping.

First, the root veggies:

• Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees
• Cut your veggies (I used garlic, potato and carrot) into evenly-sized sections that will cook at approximately the same pace -- so if it's potatoes, they should be slices less than a half inch thick, same goes for carrot rounds, and any others.  Veggies that go great in this dish are rutabagas (peel them first), parsnip, carrots, potatoes, onion, hot peppers, and garlic cloves.
• Put your mix of cut veggies in a large mixing bowl and add 1-3 Tbsp of sunflower or safflower oil (enough to coat your veggies)
• Add finely chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, marjoram, thyme) in equal amounts to the the mix -- you want enough to see a speckle of each kind of herb on every piece of veggie
• Add a tsp of coarse sea salt
• Mix the herbs, oil, and veggies together until they are evenly coated.  Make sure that no veggies are dry or without herbs (you can grate some fresh black pepper over it here, or sprinkle hot pepper seeds to make it extra spicy)
• Lightly oil your cookie sheet with sunflower or safflower oil.  Pour the mix onto a cookie sheet in a single layer, meaning that there are not veggies stacked on top of one another, and place in oven for 35 minutes, turning once 15 minutes in

Once this is in the oven for 15 minutes, it's time to make the pan-fried zucchini!  Don't do it too early, or it will get soggy.

• Start a pan warming up to medium high heat
• Add 1 Tbsp of sunflower or safflower oil to the pan -- make sure it doesn't smoke as this means the pan is way too hot.
• In a small, flat mixing bowl, pour in whole wheat (not enriched!) flour about an 1/8th of an inch deep
• Add 1/2 tsp of cracked black pepper, and any savory dried herbs like oregano, basil, rosemary and thyme -- you can use an Italian or herbs de provence mix.  The herbs should be about 1 tsp worth.  Mix it until the flour and herbs are a uniform consistency.
• Cut a single zucchini into long, flat sections.  If the skin is at all tough, peel it first.
• Run each piece of zucchini under water for a moment so it is moist, no need for egg-- then dip it in the flour/herb mix so it has a thin coating of the flour/herb mix
• Place the zucchini in the hot oiled frying pan and let them cook until the bottom is browned.  You want the flour to be completely cooked.
• Once done, place the pieces on a paper towel, resting on a plate to absorb excess oil.  If the timing is right, the root veggies in the oven should be ready to come out shortly.

Lastly, time to make some ketchup-like tomato dip.  This is optional because the other stuff is already super tasty.  I like it because it gives the meal more color and flexibility.

• In a small bowl, add 1/2 Cup of crushed canned tomatoes -- make sure it's 100% tomato and nothing else
• Add a pinch of allspice, clove, coriander, plus an even smaller pinch of something spicy like cayenne or dried hot peppers -- if you have a garlic powder you trust, add a pinch of that as well.
• Add 1/2 tsp of coarse sea salt
• Add 1 tsp of sugar, or honey  (you may want more depending on your taste, but mix first and let it sit before adding more -- too much sweet is no good)
• Mix thoroughly and either serve cold, or heat the mixture and serve hot

The last element is putting a nice bed of fresh raw greens on the side.  I recommend arugula, mustard, butter lettuce, cress, and turnip greens.   I'll make a note in a later potlicker on how to make your own "greens bed" in the back yard.

So, once it's all done, plate it up and serve to whomever you want to be impressed with your mad cooking skills.

Bird Nests : cookies for Marni.

I made these to work on my obviously cookie deficient blog.
They are vegan and I recommend them highly to ANYONE who likes chocolate and coconut.

Preheat oven to 425.

The dry bits:

• 1 Cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 Cup unbleached white flour
• 1/4 Cup  Oat flour (rolled oats tossed into a food processor and pulverized)
• 1/4 Cup Baking Cocoa
• 1/2 Cup vegan sugar
• 1/4 Cup sugar in the raw or demerara sugar
• 3/4 Cup coconut
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp or hefty pinch cinnamon

Blend or finger sift everything together well!

The wet bits:

• 2/3 Cup - 3/4 Scant Cup olive oil  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I add it to the olive oil to carry it throughout the mixture)
• 1/2 Cup warm {tap hot} water (this is added in small amounts after everything is well blended to bind everything together tightly)

After the mixture is blended with spoon or hands and the texture changes from grainy to like a sand castle building texture.  Just so it can hold its form enough.  Line a cookie sheet with foil.  Then make tiny 1 inch balls and press your thumb into their tops just to give them a little well for collecting your filling.  In the nest you can put a chocolate chip.  A filbert or macadamia nut.  I added a little dash more of coconut since that is what I had on hand.  Then pop into the oven.  These bake for no more than 5 minutes!   Once the shine from them is gone and the coconut is lightly toasted.  I made this with a mom in mind, so it's a time saver.  The recipe will make 48 tiny cookies.  Perfect for tiny hands. 

These will keep well for at least a week.  You can measure out all of the dry ingredients and put it into a mason jar with a masking tape labeled - Bird Nests.  Good gift for family and friends.  Jar them and give with a little instruction card  for the wet ingredients needed and oven temp and timing stuck on the lid.

Strawberry mint muffins with apple.

So I love cooking for folks and rarely get to do it.  We had friends over and they brought a gorgeous plate of strawberries and mint.  From which I used to top the cherimoya pies but there was still bounty so from that I got the notion to toss together some more lovelies for the next day.  These are a wonderful treat.  The tiny mint leaves cooked throughout add the tiniest bit of class to this other wise tasty, but in a more regular way, muffins.  Cracking these open and having them with some warm fennel, rooibos and lemon balm tea is sinfully relaxing.

Preheat oven to 350

• 1 heaping Cup oat flour  (Rolled oats blended in a food processor do wonders in lieu of buying "specialized" flour which is the same thing)
• 1 shallow Cup Whole wheat flour
• A few small tender mint leaves cut chiffonade (Spearmint was used in this)
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1 granny smith apple peeled, cored, diced
• 1 Cup strawberries washed and sliced well

Toss the fruit with the already soft blended dry ingredients.

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup loose light brown sugar

Beat the eggs, sugar, oil and applesauce together. Pour into the dry,  fold and blend everything gently until silky and scoopable.  Scoop into a muffin tin. Bake for 22 minutes.  This makes one dozen deliciously light muffins and the oat flour helps sustain you by being metabolized very slowly.  EXCELLENT for hiking, workout breakfasts, and for when you may miss a meal later. 

Cheese Sticks

These are mostly bread and seeds if done right on.  They use egg for a binder for the seeds but you can do olive oil instead although I believe the egg is nicer and it isn't dominant.  It is just one egg, OR you can use just whites (2-3) and save the yolks for something else, for all of them.

These fall under the "A little bad for you" category only because cheese when it becomes crispy is pretty broken protein.  Melted it is okay with just the casomorphins being the only exciters in it as long as it is WHOLE milk cheese and not radically aged. Aged cheeses (harder cheeses like asiago, pecorino, parmesan) have a lot more casomorphins - the stuff that makes you overeat cheese.  It is very hard to find really good cheese (cheese that doesn't rely on it high content of casomorphins or rely on artificial/"natural" flavorings- not already present in the cheese) Low fat cheeses and skim milk cheeses being absolutely terrible.  Better to have the small amounts of whole milk cheese aged forever than to have fresh skim milk cheese.  The process by which cheese is made is a process of breaking the protein.  But like most things the closer you are to the source and the closer the control you have the better off you are.

So for this I used sharp raw milk cheddar from Greenbank farms (Preston, WA -find local cheeses near you!) at present it just relies on the cheese tasting good as is and they don't screw with it and a small amount of it goes A LONG way. Also for vegetarians, Greenbank uses vegetable rennet.  No matter what size chunk of cheese I buy it is best to chop it up immediately into shared dinner portions (for the entire meal not to be monopolized by any one person).  I'll have one chunk for an entire large pizza a little chunk for burritos and so on... often getting several meals spaced over the course of weeks for a cheesed meal here and there.

You can get nuts and use something IN place of the cheese on these as well.  The basic bread is vegan.  You can roll it that way with your own spin using a spicy pepper center or a cinnamon filling.

Ingredients:

• 2 slightly heaping Cups unbleached white flour (you can do a whole wheat version by doing 50/50 or 75/25 whole wheat -white but adding a touch more yeast to help the heavier whole wheat rise well)
• 1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
•  1 package of yeast or 1 heaping tsp  (adding a touch more yeast if doing more whole wheat than white wheat so it will help the heavier wheat rise well)
• 1 Cup warm water (you may need a standby 1/4 - 1/2 Cup warm water for later when mixing)
• 1 tsp vegan sugar or granulated
• 1-2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 tsp or more of each favorite herb if dried,  Unless your herbs are especially potent then cut in half -1 TBSP of each if fresh
• (basil, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme nearly anything)
• 1/2 tsp salt

• flaxseed
• poppyseed
• cheddar cheese

approx. 12 large cheese sticks

Method:

Add yeast to warm water until frothy (5-10 minutes)

Add all dry ingredients to each other and finger sift/stir.  Add water/yeast and stir into a silky ball adding water as needed.  Olive oil a bowl and drop dough into it.



Let the dough rise for 15 minutes, max - too much longer and the dough which is still trying to rise while you work it will become unruly, you want the dough to be "young" and not too puffy or with too much elasticity as you'll need to work with the dough through a few steps to form the twists and with that time throughout the manipulation it will continue to mature and puff. So effecient quick moves and not too much nit picking.

Take the still young dough place onto a floured surface, flouring top slightly working in a little flour and then roll out trying to work it into a rectangle of about 3/4 of an inch in height.  Cut down the middle with the back of a knife or a bread cutter.  Take to a non-porous surface and coat top sides in  well beaten egg (or your replacement), beat just enough to break the white from keeping the egg bound.  Cover tops well leaving plenty for the other sides.

 Cover one egged side with flaxseed, and the other egged side with poppyseed.

After well covered in seeds flip over letting seed sides lay on surface and coat the "bottom" not top sides in your remaining egg (or your replacement).  Take your cheese that you've portioned out and grate it.  Cover one of the top egged only sides in the cheese to get coverage you like, too much cheese and it just spills out and wastes during cooking.  So some "holes" in the coverage are fine it works out in the end.

Preheat oven to 400.

Once cheese is on, flip other dough egged only side touching the cheese so the two sandwich the cheese in the middle.

From the top view of the dough find the center with the dough vertically oriented and cut horizontally in half.  Then cut each half into six pieces.  I goofed on the first set and had one giant one when it could have been two.  This recipe will make 12 large cheese sticks.

Place each piece after two twists (or more if you're a master and don't spill cheese) on a lightly olive oiled baking sheet (really not much oil is needed at all, and once oiled it is good for both batches and doesn't need another coat).

Bake each set at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes until golden.

Serve straight from the oven when possible.  Watch as your family thinks you are a genius.  Oh, and you are.

So simple Banana muffins.

No eggs?  No problem.  Eggs are often thought of as a must-have for baking.  This is because they are an excellent rising agent (I almost typed eggcellent, would you have ever forgiven me?).  Along with eggs, baking soda, honey, and yeast help as well.  So one part the egg does that yeast and baking soda don't do is also help bind the ingredients together.  For that bananas are wonderful, however they do not really aid in rising so along with them you'll need baking soda like in most egg baking as well.

You can also use bananas and/or applesauce in a pinch for recipes that require eggs when you are out.  Or a bit more oil than you'd like to use in a recipe?  Swap some or all of it out for applesauce.  If you want it to have LESS banana flavor use slightly greener bananas.  The less ripe the banana the less banana flavor, but they'll still bind like a champ.  I recommend if your plan is to stay away from the bad stuff (MSG, broken proteins or amines), then using just spotty bananas will suffice for banana flavored things.  It has really good flavor without too much of the bad stuff (blackened bananas are bad for you. sigh. I love them - but nature is right, rotten isn't good for me or you).

Banana anything is usually good but often not amazing.  Whenever folks would cook for me as a vegetarian they'd usually serve up a banana something for dessert.  And it was generally decent tasting but nothing to rave on about.  Bananas cooked in rum or over a campfire might send me, but alas no muffin did that.  It was always. "yum" in the tiniest print.  I think there are two fruits that go extraordinarily well with bananas: strawberries and blueberries, but they get to fight over who wins.  You win by eating them.  These muffins can be made with fresh or frozen blueberries OR fresh or frozen strawberries.  These have blueberry.  See the bounty!

So on with it.  Banana muffin time. 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• 1 and 1/2 Cup whole wheat flour (as usual, you may use the flour you favor or do a combo)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice (this is my favorite spice in this recipe and I feel makes it less ordinary)
• 1 Cup slightly heaping blueberries (or strawberries)
• 2 lightly spotted bananas
• 3/4 Cup olive oil (you can get away with less and always add up to the 3/4 to make sure the flour combines)
• 3/4 Cup vegan sugar ( or sneak less in there until the family noticeably gets irritated with you)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Yield is approx. 1 dozen

I had forgotten salt when making these on a whim, it was not missed -so I left it out.  I do find this recipe to be a tad sweet for me, Jason would not have me change it for the world so your family may also like it as is. I plan on probably sneaking less in next time as the bananas and the blueberries are quite sweet and don't rely as heavily on the sugar as other fruits may - like cranberries.

Combine dry ingredients except sugar (sugar always goes with wet ingredients).  Add the 1 Cup auxiliary fruit and toss to coat in flour.  Chop bananas in a separate mixing bowl until small bits, cover in the oil, sugar and vanilla.  Beat senseless until nearly fluffy like eggs or butter would be and once well combined scrape into the dry ingredients and combine well until no dry flour remains. I use a 1/4 Cup scoop to pour into paper lined muffin tin.  Cook for 20-30 minutes. My oven in Portland, Oregon took 28 minutes the longest of all my muffins your oven in Istanbul may take longer.  The tops should have golden brown kisses and start to crack with fault lines and when pressed spring back just so.  Then perfection.

Pizza Update

So you may have glanced at the cast iron skillet pizza and thought "I am never going to make that."  Well jerk, you're missing out.  And if you've made it, BRAVO! Was it tasty?  What did you put on it?  Wasn't it simple and now you're a master?  I knew you could do it.  For the skeptics I'm including favorite toppings as encouragement and a reward to those who ventured to make their own pizza.

When I am making a pizza with meat I don't use more than a 1/3 Cup to 1/2 Cup ground meat.  This way a pound of meat will go very far in feeding the family.  1 pound can make several pizzas and multiple meals. Neither of the recipes below have meat nor depend on meat for flavor, and yet they remain favored by the man of the house as well.

For sauce I have done loads of variations.  I have stewed fresh tomatoes, home canned tomatoes, brand canned tomatoes and have found no matter the masterpiece, the sauce gets lost in the toppings. So in the end I've concluded that the best red sauce is straight tomato puree (not paste, as it's boiled down and becomes more saturated in excitotoxins).  I know, right?  Any ingredients (herbs, garlic, etc.) can be added directly to the pizza before the toppings stage for the same tasty effect.   Had I known this before, I could have saved myself probably a thousand hours spent perfecting sauces that would have fared better over fresh pasta than to be baked under veg and cheese.

My favorite thing is to clean out the fridge into pizza toppings.  It sounds worse than it is.  I don't use moldy potato salads... I just go through the crisper drawer and use whatever may have lost its crispness.

I do a sauce layer, a green layer, and a veggie layer, fruit layer and top with onions (I do the onions last so they cook nicely, they have a way of remaining somewhat raw when hidden in layers).

Don't be afraid to experiment and use your imagination on the sauce.   It can be honey and olive oil with curry powder, or tomato puree, roasted garlic spread, a jerk sauce, blended vegetables or just a red pepper and wine sauce.  Every kind gives you the option to showcase a masterpiece of toppings.

I usually prefer making both a very spicy pizza and a very savory pizza. When I use pear I like Goat cheese, when I use Jalapeno I like apple pieces.  These are all things you'll discover through your adventure trials.  The following are some favorites.

The order of things: crust -> sauce layer -> veggie layer -> fruit layer-> (optional cheese) -> onion and garnish on the top

Cherry bomb vegan:

• just enough tomato to cover the crust  I used a small gravy ladle to scoup 2-4 scoops of sauce on, too thick and the crust will be soggy towards the upper layer.(sauce layer)
• a handful of diced kale, or cilantro (greens/herbs layer)
• 1-2 cherry bomb peppers diced including the seeds
• 1 pinch dried peppers (jalapeno, morita, serrano, banana, ancho, pasilla, poblano, cayenne any of these) and their seeds.
• 1/2 small yam or sweet potato sliced thinly and diced again {or pulse in processor} (veggie layer)
• 1/2 -1 whole apple peeled, cored and diced (fruit layer)
• some ground pepper
• pinch of salt
• slices of onions scattered on top with some parsley sprinkled about.

If your pizza has reached a critical level of heat on the spicy index of hot then you can tame it back with some extra apple, some honey, agave or cheese.  Sweet and dairy help lower spicy heat.

Savory Pear and goat cheese:

• just enough tomato to cover the crust  I used a small gravy ladle to scoop 2-4 scoops of sauce on, too thick and the crust will be soggy towards the upper layer.(sauce layer)
• a handful of diced fresh parsley with or without a handful of fresh basil (herbs/greens layer)
• some ground pepper
• pinch of salt
• slices of red, orange or yellow peppers (these are sweeter than green - veggie layer)
• 1/2-1 whole pear, peeled, cored and sliced (fruit layer)
• 1-2 heaping TBSP goat cheese crumbled on top (cheese layer)
• slices of onions scattered on top with whatever garnish you'd like like fresh thyme, sage or oregano

There aren't strict rules to pizza.  You can do it without a sauce.  I would lower the cooking time and adjust accordingly.  You can roast a pile of root vegetables with maple syrup at the end and toss and cover the crust in that.  It is open season on creating your signature pie!

Pear Dutch Baby

A Dutch Baby is essentially a pancake cooked in a cast iron pan where the batter is poured over slices of fruit.  The benefits of the Dutch Baby is that it's always moist and springy and everyone gets to eat 20 minutes after putting it in the oven.  No flipping, no inconsistent misses that get pushed onto the least favored member of the family - you know who you are.  It's said that it started in Seattle where at the very least it acquired it's endearing name; a bastardized pronunciation of "Deutsch"  -- yet another insult to German Americans who have been called Dutch and Pennsylvania Dutch.  Not that Dutch is an insult, but that who wants to be called incorrectly.   It's hard to believe that grandmas everywhere haven't tried this before, especially to feed their small armies or those who kept chickens and had an abundance of eggs. The following recipe will fill a 1-2 quart pan.  Although the pancake slices are light, they are quite filling and a small pan should feed 6 normal folks who don't overeat, or 4 easily like princes or feed 2 like Henry the VIII.  For the more insatiable group of eaters, I recommend serving with sliced fruit.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 Cup water or tea of your choice - light herbal or a black is good (When I am out of cinnamon powder, I make a hot cup of water and put in a few cinnamon sticks 3 or 4 to steep then I use it once it is tepid)
• 1/2 scant Cup of Olive Oil (You can use butter, but it is not necessary)
• 2 TBSP Sugar of your choice (It should not be so much that it makes it sickeningly sweet)
• 1 tsp Vanilla

• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 scant Cup of flour (I do 50/50 unbleached white and whole wheat pastry as whole wheat can make it denser)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1 pear peeled, cored, sliced (or fruit of your choice)

For the topping, your choices are unlimited and for myself I don't use anything with cornstarch in it, like powdered sugar.  Here are some ideas:

• Honey
• Maple syrup
• Cocoa syrup 
• A simple syrup (syrup made of sugar of choice and enough hot water to make into a syrup)
• Agave nectar
• Buttercream (eggs, butter, sugar)
• Spiced Honey butter (butter whipped with cinnamon, ginger, and honey then chilled and sliced into servings)
•  Fruit compote
• Berry preserves
• Yogurt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Oil or butter cast iron pan.  Lay pear (or other fruit) in butter (maybe a tablespoon not more) and flip until coated, set aside.  Blend all dry ingredients except sugar (your sugar always goes with the wet ingredients). Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and olive oil together gently.  Slowly add water and then beat into dry ingredients bowl scraping sides and combing until thin and syrupy.  Pour over the pears and put into hot oven for 20 minutes.  It will be largely puffy and have a gorgeous sheen across a light brown fault lined terrain.  Fruit may float to the top but if it doesn't it is fine.  Enjoy this easy dish.

Lonely slice

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

It rarely gets more simple than crisp.  Crisp is made of either crumbs of bread/crackers or a flour blended with oats, sugar, and butter.  You put this on top of whatever fruit you wish.  I like to make up an amount enough for about 3-5 medium sized crisps (each serving 4 heartily or 6 reasonably) and then keep that in the freezer and when I want a crisp I put a little flour over my sugared fruit, a layer of oats, a layer of crisp and another layer of oats.

I never use crumbs of crackers unless I've made them because I don't know what is going on in there otherwise.  I have used day old bread and think this is a favorite use for it aside from croutons and Italian bread soup.

The Crisp:

• 1 Cup flour (I use whole wheat)
• 1 Cup rolled oats, not instant (you can add a little steel cut pre-cooked oats for texture)
• 3/4 C Light Brown Sugar (you can use any kind of sugar you like, I use light brown because it contains only a little molasses as opposed to dark brown, and still gives a richer sugar flavor with using less of it)
• 1/2 stick or 1/4 Cup very cold butter (make sure the butter is not cultured, it is code word for headache/stomachache - Unsalted butters will often be cultured because it makes you feel like it tastes better when it is the fermentation creating the excitotoxin and salt is better for you than eating too much of the cultured butter) I prefer Kerrygold salted butter, and even their unsalted is cultured.
• The spices in the crisp are up to you. What follows are the standard ones.
• 1 scant TBSP cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg or more
• 1/2 tsp allspice (depending on the fruit I'll use more or less when making bulk I opt for less)

*this recipe is the large amount that I store in the freezer for quick desserts each time I make a whole crisp I use a third or a quarter of this recipe from the freezer - putting the rest back for later. 

The fruit:

• 1 1/2 C rhubarb (washed, diced into 1/8th inch coins)
• 1 1/2 C strawberries (washed, quartered)
• 1/4 C rolled oats
• 1/8 C flour (I use whole wheat)
• you can also add extra of any spice you wish

I wash, then dice 1/8th inch coins out of the rhubarb until I have a heaping cup or 1 and 1/2 cups (3-5 stalks depending).  Put into casserole dish without grease or oil I toss the rhubarb with the 1/4 cup loose light brown sugar. And top with 1 and 1/2 cup strawberries washed and quartered.  I then put a scant 1/4 cup flour sprinkled to top the fruit (this will help the fruit thicken and hold together).  Then a thin layer of rolled oats, as much crisp as you like, and a sprinkle of extra oats on top of that.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes checking on darkness of your crisp.  It should be golden with dark spots and a lot of red bubbling sauce around the edges.

  I like to serve a smaller amount of the good stuff along with a pile of fresh cut fruit.

Flour Tortillas

 Tortillas are really just a flatbread minus all the scariness that the word bread carries with it.  They are very quick in the world of breads and probably the easiest of all.  You can roll them thick and make gyros and falafel styled sandwiches or make them thin and load them with vegetables and hot sauce.  Not much else is tastier than cucumber sauce and whole wheat tortillas.  SO good.  I have tried dozens of variations (at least) over the years and a dozen recently to find a good ratio, good ingredients and the best result.  My favorite of them all is below. 

Ingredients:   This recipe makes approximately one dozen 6-8 inch tortillas.

•  2 Cups flour (I use 1 Cup Whole wheat pastry flour, and 1 Cup unbleached white flour)
• 1 fat pinch of salt (not too much more than a teaspoon)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2-3 TBSP olive oil
• 1/2-3/4 cup hot water (as hot as you can do without boiling) 

Finger sift dry ingredients together first, then drizzle the olive oil over the top then without concern for its well-being pour hot water in a little at a time.  Fold ingredients with a spatula taking the outside of the flour and pushing it into the center, and as the flour sticks together it should form one mass.  If there are a lot of crumbles outside of the mass or a lot of flour remaining all over the bowl then add more water and fold any remnants in to your dough ball.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Using the heel of your hand, knead the dough out to collect a little flour and then fold it back onto itself.  Rotate this as you do it and it will become less sticky and trade that for silky.  Once it has become completely silky and the texture is like a love handle or an ear lobe then you have a perfect dough. Wrap the dough disk in some plastic or slip into a plastic baggie  (covered by a towel on a table is fine too).  Let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Put the dough ball onto a lightly floured surface and roll out a disk to where it is still nice and thick (approx. 3/4 - 1/2 of an inch).  Put it on a cutting surface and cut into 2" squares.  Videos for help are available and I've included the links within the writing where it matches the video information.

 You can then use a tortilla press to help flatten the dough quickly and without overworking.  Or you can do all the rolling needed manually with a pin.  I split the difference.  I flatten it a bit with a tortilla press to get it started.  When using a press plastic wrap or parchment paper between the dough and the wood or metal will help you in removing the tortilla and lessen the clean up. My press is a wooden version and cost 12 dollars new.  Often you can find these at thrift stores like the Salvation Army and most folks don't know what they are unless it states so on the tag.  Sometimes you can get them at ridiculously low prices used.

Anyhow,  if you are rolling out the dough by hand or are planning on making more breads like this or any breads then I'd recommend using a "French" pin.  I find them easier to use especially if you are wanting speed, or working with multiples (tarts and pastry dough too).  French pins have a totally smooth tapered end with no separations for handles.  Mine is a Polish pin, it cost 3.50 new from Pasta Works in Portland.  No need to get too fancy... it's a piece of wood for crissakes!

Your tortillas should be thin enough that if you hold it on top of one of your hands it drapes nicely and takes your finger impressions into it.  Once they are ready - have a pan warming.  I cook mine on a med-High heat and I use a DRY (no oil, no butter) cast iron skillet.  This means great things.  It holds heat fairly evenly, stays hot for a long time, no added fat or waste of fat that can go in something else, and clean up is as simple as wiping the scorched flour dust out of it. 

Carry your tortilla using your whole hand to support it,  you don't want it to stretch or slip out of your fingers.  Place your tortillas into the pan.  It will take only a few seconds before you see little bubbles on the surface... once those appear then flip the tortilla, the second side will take even less time to cook and you can judge your pan's heat from the darkness of the bubbles or scorch marks.  Adjust to your tastes.  I like a little darkness in spots.  Too much and it is carbon.  None at all and it looks like packaged food.  Variety is nice.

 

Brocoli Rabe and Sweet Potato tacos

On the right you can see the nation's 5th president, Lex Luthor.

These are good the next day without any fuss over them.  I don't even bother heating them up again as they remain pliable as long as they are stored outside of the fridge overnight and covered.  If you wish them to last longer you can refrigerate them.  I haven't.   If you see that you forgot them two nights out of the fridge after their debut, then you can cut them up and bake them to make little toasts for soup, salsa, salads and other meals that begin with 's'.  These do not last long.  They will mold.  I would say within 5 days sooner if warm and humid.  Unless you are sneaking some sort of preservative in there.  Fresh or day old is the way to go with these.

Besides, now you're a master and can make them anytime so don't bother hoarding them!  Cut the recipe in half if you don't want extras next time. MMMmmm.

Veggie bake

What? They can't all be fancy.  I want to just tell you grab a favorite fruit and a favorite lettuce and combine them - but either you will or you won't.  What I don't have to tell you is that salt, pepper and olive oil make simple things delicious.

This meal is a chopped bed of cabbage, a layer of thinly-sliced carrots, red peppers and 1/2 chopped jalapeno, and then some zucchini slices piled on with sprinkles of sea salt, smoked salt, cracked pepper, and olive oil drizzled over the top.

For the topping I shredded {thin shreds} of cheddar and cubed one slice of bread - that is it.  I put the cheese on first so it wilts and I like the bread on last to be extra crunchy.

 I baked these for about 35 minutes at 375 - 400 degrees. Then in the last minute added a shred of cheese and a thin slice of my favorite European styled sourdough from, gasp, a package {French Meadow -- it is vegan and not adulterated with the bad stuff} (how Rachel Ray of me - It isn't the grossest I've been, but it is close). This is put in only long enough for the tiny cubes of sourdough to crust up.  This casserole is then served over the top of whole wheat pasta with as much fresh basil as you can handle.  I don't bake the pasta in the casserole as in order to get the timing of the veggies done and the pasta done without the over baking is tough and as stated before I am not a patient woman.  I like easy. So everything but the pasta went into a casserole dish to bake.  I put cabbage on the bottom because it wont stick to the dish and doesn't need oil to do it, its magic.

3/4 Cup shredded cabbage
1 big carrot
1 red pepper
1 small zucchini
1/2 jalapeno (more if you wish)
drizzle of olive oil (it wont need much at all!)
salt and pepper
sliver of cheese shredded after it is nearly ready to come out
slice of day old bread for croutons -best on top

Fresh Basil or cilantro
However much pasta you need to feed your tribe.  I used Organic Whole Wheat.

My casserole dish will fit about 5 cups of goods in it before it is maxed out.  So up the numbers if you need.  This is a quick throw together.  Clean out your refrigerator into this tasty dish.

You can serve this without cheese and bread slice and instead serve it over a tortilla, or with cornbread, or with rice or shepard's pie style... yum.  No matter your choice, this is an excellent wine drinking meal.

Onion tart

My, my, my, onions.  They make me cry twice, once while cutting and again while eating them.  This is one that is easier with a couple trials.  Don't worry too much, as failure in this case still yields very tasty food.  I have faith in you all.

The easiest tart to make uses a large tart pan with a removable bottom, and by large I mean it's diameter, not it's height - anything around or over 9 inches.  This makes a thinner to cut and easier to wield tart with plenty of canvas for spreading out foods (the deeper the tart the most wild the interior gets when removing it from the pan or slicing it).  I don't recommend cutting IN or ON your tart pan.  Move your tart to a cutting surface. 

Onion tarts are very versatile in how savory or sweet you wish to make them. For mine I opt for a middle of the road which is a win for me.  You can be onion exclusive using just vidalias or you can create a blend.  I'm cheap and impatient so I use whatever is readily available. You can easily make this tart into a quiche with a bunch of eggs or a pepper-laden tart with any mix or blend of peppers you choose.  You are only limited by your imagination and of course if you choose the worst ingredients ever like everlasting gobstoppers with a bubblegum sauce. Then, that is just nasty.

Base Ingredients: (most tart recipes are approximately the same if you do as I and avoid laboratory made binding agents - shortening and margarine) For a sweeter recipe you can use a sugar instead of a salted crust.

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, and a little for dusting your work surface
• Salt
• 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-1/4 inch dice ( you want the butter cold as possible while working with it you'll warm it up so you wont want to hand hold it while cutting )
• 1/4 cup cold water (you may need a few drops more)
• 2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2-4 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 pounds, this will change by size of tart pan, and whether or not you've chosen to add other things to your tart)

For the tart so many instructions recommend you refrigerate overnight or for 4 hours beforehand .  I haven't the patience for all that noise so I make it before cutting my onions.   The following have two ways of working a pastry dough (don't kid yourself tarts are pastry - anything with a stick of butter may even fall under the definition). So read through and pick the one for you.

1. For a food processor -pulse the flour with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add the diced butter and pulse until it’s the size of small peas, you want these little butter lumps - they make a flaky crust. Sprinkle in the cold water and pulse again until the tart dough begins to come together. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap (I use a baggie) and gently pat into a circle/disk/discus/round doorstop. Wrap the dough and refrigerate until it is firm, at least 1 hour.  While chopping onions, you'll want to preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Or do like me-
2. Old school - and cut the pieces of butter in with a pastry cutter, use swift hands or rubber spatula to blend in salt and cold water to make a ball put it into a plastic freezer bag and then once covered in plastic swiftly push ball into a disk (you can use plastic wrap - I repeated use a dedicated freezer bag for all sorts of dough things when it needs resting periods or chilling) and without sealing just tuck the zipper side under the dough and put into the freezer while cutting onions up. Once the onions have started and are in the pan then that will be your cue to work on rolling out your tart. It should be a little firm, the firmer the better. Which is why the hour in the previous set. It wont have to be that long, I promise!  While chopping onions, you'll want to preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

The tart will need 20-23ish minutes by itself in the oven to bake its shell through.

First get this step going, then work on tart (following step)
Put chopped onions in a small amount of olive oil for 25 minutes on a medium heat stirring enough that it doesn't stick or blacken if you see signs of this you'll need to turn down your pan and or cover with a lid.  You want to do this part slowly so the onions become loose and translucent.  Some folks will add salt or sugars at this stage.  I add nothing.  Just stir and as they become fragrantly sweet and soft turn the burner down all the way and give it not much more than another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile - On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a 12-inch round er your size of pan. Wrap the dough around the rolling pin and transfer it to a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough into the pan.  If parts stick out you can trim and use scraps to patch any cracks that occur. Prick holes all over the bottom of the crust with a fork. Bake until the crust is lightly browned, about 20 minutes. I use a liner of foil and put pie weights into the shell.  You don't have to have them but it seems no matter what magic tricks I've tried otherwise the shell will puff.  Some folks use dry beans as pie weights.  Never did it.  I received pie weights as a gift, and so I use them.

Once the shell comes out, fill with your selected goodness/onions and toss into oven to warm everything just for about 5 minutes on 400.

What I chose was :
2 med-large onions plus onion scraps
1/2 Cup cooked ground turkey
1 TBSP heaping goat cheese
drizzle of maple syrup
salt and cracked black peppercorns

Served with Arugula salad and Anjou pears with sea salt.

Lovely.  This is "What about Bob?" good.

Chocolate cherry muffins

I had trouble choosing whether or not these would be chocolate cherry muffins or cherry chocolate muffins, but since two kinds of chocolate are in these - Mr. Chocolate gets first billing.

For these bad mama jammas you may omit the sherry and still get good results although it does boost the cherry into a more complex, lovely realm with it added.  Really though, who has sherry unless you are a nerd?  Imagine a neon arrow pointing in my direction and on it, it might say "I know you are, but what am I?".  After all, I spend my time drooling while recalling recipes (not a joke, I've had a mishap or two) and waltzing aimlessly into SALT stores (also not a joke, stores that carry ALL MANNER OF SALTS!) so sherry you'd think would have been on my shelf long ago, but nope - I bought it last week because I wanted to see what it was about and then tried it in a couple of recipes.  This one yielded the most pleasing results.

I once tried these muffins with dried cherries and I must say being exhausted and working with both baking cocoa and dried fruit is a terrible idea.  Doing so practically guarantees your food will be careless (as I was) and the results even tasted careless.  IF you choose to use dried cherries, I recommend using either a tiny bit of hot water to plump them up (heat water... just enough for cherries to sit in while putting together other ingredients) OR you can use lightly-heated oil and put them into that.  I didn't use any of those methods for these muffins. I used frozen cherries which I had picked from my soon to be mother-in-law's cherry trees last summer.

1 and 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat flour (I use Bob's red mill organic ww)
1 TBSP cinnamon (cassia is fine)
2 TBSP + 1 tsp baking cocoa powder (I use Equal Exchange)
shallow 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (I used Sunspire semi-sweet you can use Dagoba Dark is you prefer)
1 cup - heaping cup of cherries (if frozen set them in a low dish and add sherry to the dish over the top of them, let this sit while you work on the rest of the batter and come back to them)
3 TBSP rosso {the red}Martini Rossi sherry for the cherries (you wont become an alcoholic from baking with alcohol it bakes OUT and leaves just the wonderful notes and characters that are in it minus the inebriation, you'd have an easier time getting drunk from cough syrup than raw muffin batter) You can use cherry based wine instead - if you know of any that treat you well.
1/2 cup not packed but heaping light brown sugar
1/2 cup whichever favorite sugar (I used vegan sugar, you can use evaporated cane, raw or natural)
3 eggs
3/4 cup olive oil
350 for 20-24 minutes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  If using fresh or frozen cherries put them into a shallow bowl and cover with (in this order) sherry, sugars, 3 eggs pre-beaten and leave to mingle on its own while you prep the rest.  In a mixing bowl, put your flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking cocoa and chocolate chips, and finger blend.  Back to the cherries... mix these with a little tossing and add 3/4 cup olive oil and spatula scrape this into your flour and blend well until everything makes a smooth rich cinnamon chocolate color.  I use a 1/4 cup scoop to scoop batter into paper lined muffin tins and this made 18 average sized muffins.

20-24 minutes until done.  In my electric oven (I miss the gas stove!) in Portland, Oregon it takes 22 minutes to perfection. For those of you in the Alps, I don't know what it takes so just poke it early and eat it when it is perfect!

Oh my!