Veggie Chili

I am not usually a fan of veggie chili. I just feel there should be some type of meat in it. After all, authentic Texas chili doesn't even have beans. But I think the secret to enjoying a veggie chili is getting enough CHILE-WITH-AN-E flavor in it. In my verson, I use one fresh jalapeno, two chipotle chiles and a teaspoon of adobo sauce, and one dried Chile Pasilla Negro. This adds a nice smoky flavor, and combined with a can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes, the chili creates a warm feeling for your cold winter night.

Balancing heat and flavor is a tightrope act when you are cooking for others,. My wife does not like as much heat as I do. This version is just right, where she said it was hot, but ate her portion, and took the leftovers to work for lunch.


Veggie Chili

2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 chopped cloves of garlic
1 chopped shallot
1 chopped onion
~1" squares of butternut squash
4 skinny carrots chopped
1 chopped red pepper
1 chopped de-seeded jalpeno
1 chopped de-seeded chipotle pepper
1 tsp adobo sauce
28 oz fire roasted tomatoes
12 oz Ale
15 oz red kidney beans
8 oz frozen corn
Mexican Oregano
Cayenne Pepper
Chile Powder
Cumin


Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven. Saute the garlic, shallots, and onion until translucent. Layer with salt and pepper. Add the carrots, squash, red pepper, and chopped chiles and cook for 10 minutes. When the carrots and squash start to soften, add the fire roasted tomatoes, beer, beans, adobo sauce, corn and spices. I used about a tablespoon of mexican oregano and cumin, and about a 1/2 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and chile powder. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for roughly 30 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste along the way.

Top with grated cheese, sour cream, green onions, tortilla chips. Or serve over rice.

It came out really well. If you're a meat chili lover, you may not even miss the meat.

Down Under a Carrot Cake

The latest pause in our lives came as we tried a raw diet for a week. One tangible benefit of such an extreme menu is that my jeans fit better. I had noticed that after a horribly sprained ankle set my exercise schedule back, my clothes were not fitting me the way I was used to. So now we're back eating cooked food with a vengeance. There's nothing like a birthday and valentine's day to kick-start the sweets eating festival.

For my wife's birthday, I always bake a carrot cake; that's her favorite. I usually save recipes we like, but this year I opted for something new. I found a carrot cake recipe inspired by the cake served at the Bourke Street Bakery in Surry Hills, NSW, Australia. Honestly, it was great. It was light, moist, and not-too-sweet. The perfect cake to fall off the wagon of healthy dieting with.

Giving credit where credit is due, I found the recipe at the Almost Bourdain food blog. I'll re-post for convenience.

Bourke Street Bakery's Carrot Cake Recipe
(Adapted from Bourke Street Bakery's Cookbook)

Bourke Street Bakery - "It's necessary to work quickly to make this recipe succeed. Everything is whipped to incorporate a lot of air and the dry ingredients are quickly folded through at the end. The whipped egg whites result in a fantastic crisp meringue-like top on the cake. We have a number of mixers. So we can have everything mixing at one time, but for a home kitchen you will get the best results working in the order listed within the recipe.

Ingredients
70 g (2 1/2 oz) walnuts
150 g (5 1/2 oz / 1 cup) self-raising flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
55 ml (1 3/4 fl oz / about 2) egg whites
60g (2 1/4 oz / 1/4 cup) sugar for egg whites
1 egg
1 egg yolk
160g (5 3/4 oz / 3/4 cup) sugar for egg yolks
170 ml (5 1/2 fl oz / 2/3 cup) extra light olive oil
125 g (4 1/2 oz) carrots, peeled and grated

Cream Cheese Frosting:
20 g (3/4 oz / 1 tsp) icing (confectioners') sugar, plus extra, for dusting
20 g (3/4 oz / 1 tbsp) butter, softened
145 g (5 1/4 oz) cream cheese (preferably Neufchatel)
40 ml (1 1/4 fl oz / 2 tbsp) pouring (whipping) cream (35% fat)

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F). Grease an 18 cm (7 inch) round cake tin and line the base and side with baking paper - the paper should protrude about 2.5 cm (1 inch) above the tin.

2. Place the walnuts on a baking tray and cook for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly roasted. Cool and cut into thirds. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt into a bowl. Repeat to ensure they are evenly mixed.

3. Put the egg whites in a very clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks start to form. Slowly pour in the sugar for the egg whites, while the motor is still running, being careful not to overmix - the meringue should reach soft peak stage. Quickly transfer the meringue to another bowl and set side until needed.

4. Put the egg and egg yolk in the bowl of the electric mixer and add the sugar for the egg yolks. Mix on high speed for 3-4 minutes, or until the mixture doubles in volume and is quite airy. With the motor still running, slowly pour in the oil in a thin stream being careful that it doesn't split or deflate too much.

5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and with a spatula or gloved hand, gently fold in the flour mixture until combined. Fold in the carrots and walnuts. Quickly and lightly fold in the meringue - do not fold it through completely, you should still be able to see streaks of meringue through the mix.

6. Pour into the preapred tin and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into centre of the cake comes out clean. You may need to drop the oven temperature to 180C (350F) after the first 30 minutes if the top is browning too quickly) (* The top of my cake was browning too quickly and I had turn down the oven temperature as instructed but still a little too burnt. I would suggest to monitor the temperature very closely for the first 30 minutes.)

7. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. Cream the icing sugar and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and smooth. Add the cream cheese in small amounts, allowing it to completely incorporated before adding the rest. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl during this process to ensure even mixing. Add the cream and mix until smooth, being careful not to overmix at this stage or the cream may curdle and separate. If using a different type of cream cheese for this recipe you may need to add a little more cream - the frosting needs to be of a spreadable consistency but not at all runny.

8. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 30 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Using a serrate knife, slice horizontally through the centre of the cake to form two even-sized layers and fill with cream cheese frosting. (* I like my carrot cake to be eaten warm. I frosted the cake before it was completely cool. Hence, the slightly melted looking cream cheese frosting)

9. Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar to serve.

Featured in Another Blog

I have been included in the House of Annie "Grow Your Own Roundup." From the website...

This edition of GYO features 61 different dishes from 8 different countries. The “Grow Your Own” food blog roundup, created by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes, features dishes using ingredients which have been raised in our own (or someone else's) gardens or have been hunted or foraged. Why grow your own? Because it saves money and makes for better tasting food!

I am in awe of the variety of great food that's being made in what is Winter for a majority of food bloggers out there. I'm also very thankful for the participants from Australia for showing off their homegrown produce.

http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2010/02/grow-your-own-roundup-38.html

Vegetables are Funny

In my first blog post I promised that I'd be funny. I have to admit, the blog has been long on recipes and photos, but definitely short on the funny. And for that, I am sorry.

My brother gave this great magnet for a Christmas present. It proves that vegetables can be funny.

Perfecting Pizza

There is more than one way to do just about anything. Although Aaron has shared favorite pizza dough recipes in the past, we both felt that the end result, although tasty, was missing what our favorite restaurant pizzas attain; chewy, steamy, puffy edges. Aaron is one giant step closer to those delicious ambitions. Making the task of taster that much more enjoyable for me, the wife. Not only did this dough culminate in my favorite pizza crust characteristics, but it also made three 12" pies which is handy for leftovers and accommodates toppings for discerning (and diverging) palettes.

The biggest differences in this recipe from previous postings is that (1) Aaron used an electric mixer to make a starter dough and (2) he let the dough rest for hours. I think both steps improve the end result, increasing elasticity. This recipe also brings us back to the summer, as he used basil pesto that had I made and froze at the end of the summer, to top one of the pies. Other toppings he used; prosciutto & roasted red peppers, and red sauce. You can find the dough recipe here. It is worth the extra rest-time and there is a video that explains it all.

At the end of the summer we had lots of basil growing in our yard; more than we could eat immediately. I harvested it and made a pesto using apricot kernels, rather than pine nuts. I bought the apricot kernels at Trader Joe's out of curiosity. I haven't quite acquired a taste for them. They look like almonds, but are smaller and a little sweet. When I went to make the pesto I realized I had no pine nuts, almonds, etc. and threw these in instead. They made a nice, crunchier-than-normal pesto that was fantastic on this crust with fresh mozerella.

Basil Pesto
Basil
Apricot Kernels (we happened to have these)
Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese
~2 Cloves of garlic

Shred the Parmesan cheese. Rinse and dry basil leaves. Combine all ingredients in a food processor until you achieve the taste/consistency that you like. Use right away or store. To store, keep in fridge with a layer of oil on top to prevent color change, or freeze to have a little summer in the winter.

Red Sauce (Aaron's basic sauce)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp oregano
salt & pepper

Saute garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil. Once soft add tomatoes. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 2 tbsp oregano, the sugar, the remaining olive oil, salt & pepper to taste and simmer for 20 minutes.

Guest Blogger's Baked Lemon Pudding

I am 'unemployed guy's' wife. Today I had a lunch meeting that took me to Lynnfield, MA to explore the new home of the Lynnfield Historical Commission, nestled away from the road behind the Lynnfield Common and historic Meeting House. Lynnfield, the great Essex County community and beyond are lucky to have committed individuals thoughtfully caring for and cataloging its assets. My hosts also graciously welcomed me to their homes, historic Massachusetts houses with all the character and charm you would expect, plus! It was an exceptional experience and I am grateful for all they shared about their homes and community. And although I knew we would be enjoying a meal together, I was not anticipating the thoughtfully prepared culinary adventure that was presented.

Lunch began with tea and progressed to a creamy, curried butternut squash soup accompanied by a salad of curly lettuce topped with chicken, citrus fruit slices and pomegranate seeds. Lunch was followed by a tour of our host's house, a former parsonage in Lynnfield Center. The conversation was so lively I didn't manage to get a recipe. The next stop was dessert, but first a tour of the older of the two homes. Here, first period architectural components were prominently preserved, despite centuries of change. At the end of the day, as we were heading for the door, after feeding our minds and bellies, I parted with a recipe (I think she said it came from an old Betty Crocker Cook Book). I got home and made it.

Baked Lemon Pudding
Preheat to 350. Butter a 2-quart baking dish.

Sift together

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Separate

• 3 eggs

Beat the whites until stiff. Beat in 1/2 cup sugar, one teaspoon at a time. Set aside. Without washing the beater, beat the yolks until light.
Add

• 2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Stir into the flour mixture. Beat until smooth. Add the beaten whites and fold gently until no white flecks show. Pour into the baking dish. Set in a pan of hot water 1/2 inch deep. Bake 45 minutes. Chill at least 1 hour. Serve with fruit; raspberries, blueberries, or whipped cream.

Traditions in Food & Family

I take some liberties with my blog when I don't have access to fresh grown/CSA veggies that I had during the growing season. Instead of farm, I will share some family.

Christmas. Not so long ago I celebrated Christmas with my family and new wife. For the first time in many years my family enjoyed Christmas morning all together, my parents, my brother and sister. Although I have known my wife for 12 years, this is the first Christmas morning we woke up to celebrate together.

She brought with her a family food tradition to share with my family and my family shared ours. I was raised in a household rich in Irish and Italian heritage. On Christmas Eve we enjoyed the feast of seven fishes, including; smelt, scallops, calamari, bacalla (salted cod), salmon and more, all prepared by my mom. Christmas day offered the opportunity for a hearty and lovingly prepared breakfast of Irish steel cut oatmeal and dried fruit made by my parents and coffeecake prepared by my wife (a Betty Crocker recipe her family has made for ~20 years).

Irish Oatmeal Recipe
Irish steel cut oats
water
dried fruit & nuts
honey or maple syrup

Boil water, add oats, simmer for ~30 minutes. Add fruit towards the end. Reheat for late arrivals, add a little water if dry. My dad made oatmeal with fresh sliced bananas which get sweet when they are heated. You can't go wrong, unless you under cook it.

Betty Crocker Candy Cane Coffee Cake
(makes 3, 1 for the table, 2 for gifts or whatever)

For Sour Cream Yeast Dough:
2 cups sour cream
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
6 cups all-purpose flour, about

Option 1 Filling for cake (from original recipe)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped dried apricots
1 1/2 cups finely chopped maraschino cherries
soft butter or margarine

Option 2 Filling for cake (my wife's experimental cinnamon bun version)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 stick melted butter
chopped nuts
1 tbsp cinnamon

Thin Icing:
2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons water

Heat sour cream over low heat just until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Stir in sour cream, butter, sugar, salt, eggs and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make it easy to handle.Turn dough onto well-floured board. Knead until smooth, about 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl. Turn once to bring greased side up. Cover. Let rise in warm place until double, about 1 hour. To test for rising, stick two fingers in dough. If holes remain but top stays smooth, dough is ready.

Make cake:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Punch down dough. Divide into three equal parts. Roll each part into a rectangle, 15 x 6 inches. Place on greased baking sheet. With scissors, make 2-inch cuts at 1/2-inch intervals on both long sides of the rectangles. Combine apricots and cherries. Spread 1/3 of the fruit mixture down the center of each of the rectangles. Crisscross strips over the filling, pinching strips together in the center. (One bread always looks a little funny, she gives away the 'prettiest one' we ate the funny looking one see photo right). Stretch dough to 22 inches. Curve to form a "cane." Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. While warm, brush with butter and drizzle canes with Thin Icing. If desired, decorate with cherry halves or pieces.

For thin icing: Blend 2 cups powdered sugar with about 2 tablespoons water. If icing is too stiff, add water a drop at a time. If too thin, add more powdered sugar a little at a time.

(Does not contain candy cane or coffee. FYI this is the old version of the recipe, from a duct taped together, falling apart Betty Crocker cookbook - the Betty Crocker website offers a new take on this recipe which we won't try for the sake of nostalgia. Add to this to oatmeal, scrambled eggs and a sausage ring, found in Joy of Cooking, throw in a few presents, and you have a Flanagan/Rankin family Christmas and a full belly.)