Breakfast potatoes

I may have inadvertently come across a good way to cook potatoes for breakfast. I usually boil cubed potatoes for a bit, then drain and fry in butter. Good, but I even found a way to improve on that! You see, when I put the potatoes in the pan, which I had previously used to fry bacon, and I had already melted butter in, I forgot to turn the burner on. When I realized my potatoes were not cooking, I turned the burner on high, just to get the heat going (I have an electric glass top stove, just so you know). A few minutes later, I was wondering why everything was browning so quickly. I had forgotten to turn the heat down. But rather than it being a catastrophe, the potatoes turned out wonderfully--crispy golden brown on the outside, melt in your mouth tender on the inside. These were homegrown potatoes, by the way, a yellow variety the name of which I cannot remember! So the lesson learned is, cook them fast!

Black bean soup

This is one of the few recipes that I've had so long, I can't remember where I got it. I wrote it in longhand on a quarter piece of paper that I reused from my office; the date of the original printout, visible on the back, was 06/03/94, so it was some time after that, but I was most likely still in my twenties. The recipe has been made many times; the paper has countless spills and stains on it.

With my interest in simple, whole foods stronger than ever, as well as my interest in recipes with ingredients I can grow myself, black bean soup deserves a much more frequent rotation in my cooking repertoire. It takes some time, but it is very adaptable to cooking in the slow cooker, or even on top of a wood stove, while I do other things.

Black bean soup

16 oz (2 cups) black beans, soaked (overnight, or boiled 1 minute then soaked 1 hour)
6 cups chicken broth (I use store bought organic broth, although I don't like all the packaging)

Bring to a boil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven; simmer 1 1/2- 2 hours until beans are tender. I did this part in the slow cooker yesterday, 5 hours on high, and the beans weren't quite as tender as I would have liked. I like them when they are almost falling apart.

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 diced jalapeno, optional

Saute these while the beans are cooking. After a few minutes, add 2-3 garlic cloves, smashed and minced, and saute a few minutes more. Add to the beans and broth. Then add:

1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 medium potato, shredded
Splash of red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Simmer one hour. Serve with fresh bread or garlic toast.

Hearty vegetable stew

I admit, I've seen Rachel Ray a couple of times since we got satellite TV, and I'm not a huge fan of her. Too perky, too like a teenager trying to talk adults into something. But this morning, in the wonderful hour when we adults were awake and the kids were still asleep, we watched her show, and she made a 30 minute vegetable stew that looked too delectable to resist. We had to try it. Tonight.

Now we are carnivores here, well resigned to the idea that a dinner without meat just isn't satisfying. But at the same time, I have been looking for ways to use more vegetables, and less meat, and make some wonderful whole foods, from scratch meals in the process. I bought "Laurel's Kitchen", but I was kind of disappointed in that the book was written in the fat and egg phobic 70's and early 80's. Good fats are essential. What we don't need is more hydrogenated vegetable oil. Our ancestors didn't extract oil from grains and beans, did they?

Anyway, I digress. Tonight's vegetable stew went like this: First I chopped an onion and a half (made easy since I still have so many onions from my garden!), heated up some olive oil, and tossed it in. Next I whacked four cloves of garlic (New, fun technique I have learned from several Food Network chefs; place the unpeeled garlic clove under a broad knife, then whack it with your hand. The hard peeling slips off, leaving the tender insides somewhat broken up and falling apart, no mincing required) and tossed them in the pot. I threw in a little salt and pepper and a fresh bay leaf, let them cook for a while, then put in two small zucchinis, chopped, one eggplant, cut into small pieces, and two red potatoes, cut into bite size pieces. Salt and pepper again, then cover and let it cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Then I added about a cup of chicken broth, and a large can of crushed tomatoes. Rachel recommended fire roasted tomatoes, but since my grocery store did not carry them, I added a few drops of liquid smoke to add flavor. That, and a small splash of Merlot. I cooked the whole thing for another fifteen minutes, and served with toasted cheese bread.

The verdict: What meat? We did not miss meat at all, it was delicious, and quick and easy, and fit into the "whole foods" resolution I have unofficially made for myself for the new year.

Bruschetta!

I tried a wonderful way to use fresh tomatoes, garlic, and herbs the other day.

The tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs were marinated in vinegar and olive oil longer than anticipated. Actually, we were going to do this on a Saturday night, but went for convenience food and waited until Sunday night. Such is life.


The wonderful marinated mixture was spread over French bread and topped with Provolone cheese, then baked for about ten minutes to melt the cheese.

Delicious, although I don't like eating that much bread at one sitting. But, as in all things, use in moderation...:-)

Broccoli salad

I've been faced with the dilemma of four perfect broccoli heads all maturing at the same time. I would love for them to be spaced out more, perhaps one a week, but that's how it goes. We must enjoy broccoli now.

I found a good way to do that last night, one that is quick and easy, and so delicious we've had it two nights in a row. It's a cold salad made with broccoli slightly steamed, mixed with about three fried slices of bacon, sunflower seeds, chopped onions and a dressing made with mayonnaise, honey, and vinegar. It's that simple.

But I have a tendency to modify on the simple. I added a pinch of curry to the dressing, and some red cabbage, garlic scapes, quinoa, and poppy seeds to the original mix. Didn't harm anyone. My stepdaughter really liked it!

Kale and eggs--my new favorite quickie meal

I came up with this recipe yesterday when I realized, at 2 PM, I had not eaten anything substantial all day. It was a "grazing" day, where we didn't make an official breakfast or lunch, and I just wasn't hungry despite having gone for a three mile walk and mowed half the lawn in the morning. But I knew I should eat something, and there was an abundance of eggs in the refrigerator, and the kale is doing wonderfully in the garden, and I really need to eat more veggies. So I had an idea...

I melted about a tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet. If you're concerned about saturated fat, I suppose you could substitute olive oil, but butter has all those good Omega 3's, and it just tastes better! Then I threw in about five large kale leaves, cut into smaller pieces, and a couple garlic scapes, cut up. You could substitute a clove of garlic for the scapes; I just happen to have plenty of them on hand right now.

I sauteed the kale and scapes for a couple minutes, then pushed them to the edge of the skillet and cracked two eggs in the center. I let the whites set for a short time before I broke the yolks. Then I stirred everything around for a minute or less, so the yolks were still a little bit liquid. I turned off the burner, threw on a pre-grated blend of Italian cheeses, some green salsa, fresh ground pepper, and sea salt. I ate it right out of the skillet; no extra dishes that way, and no wasted paper plates!

This meal actually took less time and effort than microwaving some prepackaged lunch entree, and it tasted great! No artificial anything in it either.

Bread making, again, and other stuff I'm trying to do

I gave the bread machine a long hiatus, because I was somehow not finding enough time to even throw together the ingredients and let the machine do the work. But lately I've been thinking just ow hard it is to find good bread, something that has mostly organic ingredients and doesn't come in a plastic wrapper. Ugh, I've come to hate the ubiquitous plastic wrapping that our modern food must have. If I could eliminate the plastic wrapper, and all the energy it takes to ship a loaf of bread to my grocery store...I think it would make a difference.

Last night The Hermit was saying how he missed good homemade bread. So this morning, after the kids got on the bus at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM, but they wanted to, and they woke up on their own, I put the stuff for a caraway rye in the bread machine. It didn't take too long, and it would be even quicker if I made up a dry mix, put it in jars, and just had to add the eggs and oil and water.

The loaf is almost gone as of this evening. All of the kids had PBJ sandwiches with it, and The Hermit and I got a taste with butter.

In other things, the next homemade item I want to try is salad dressings. I have all but sworn off Kraft and other major commercial brands, due to the amount of soy oil and corn syrup, and I'm thinking: I could probably make something better than the bottled variety, with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, and fresh organic spices. I could store dressing in pint jars in the refrigerator, without buying and having to rinse and recycle new bottles.

It's one step at a time, this life I want to live.

stinging nettles for dinner

Does that very title give you goosebumps, like it does me? I admit, I was very skeptical about cooking and eating the things. After all, I've had enough run ins with them to know they can be very irritating in their raw form. They cause a blistering rash that lasts an hour or so.

But actually they are very good steamed or sauteed; once they are limp the chemical that causes the rash has been deactivated. They can be dried and steeped in a tea or infusion as well. Nettles are very rich in nutrients, even better than spinach or just about any other green.

These are the raw leaves. I wore gloves as I picked small plants and cut the leaves off. I don't know why some of them are purple on the underside; this disappeared with cooking.

I steamed them in a small amount of water, then added butter for flavor. I knew the amount of nettles I picked would not make for much of a meal, but The Hermit had a work function to attend tonight and I had no intention of inflicting this on the kids...yet. This was my substitute for spaghetti noodles. I'm trying to go gluten free, or almost so, for a while to see if I may be sensitive to it.

The nettles have an incredible rich green flavor, better than spinach or Swiss chard. But I think you'd have to have them picked young, and very fresh, to get the kind of flavor I experienced tonight. I guess I'm lucky to have them growing wild, in unexpected places like one of my garden beds. Maybe there's a market for them at the Farmers Market!

venison jerky

My kids love jerky. I don't know how they developed a taste for it, since until yesterday, I had never made homemade jerky. I suppose it was some of the expensive, store-bought variety that got them addicted. It is a pretty healthy snack, and we had some venison steaks in the freezer, so this unexpected, long weekend I thought I'd try making some.

Two words: Easy. Delicious. The only thing is, it takes a bit of patience while it's drying in the oven.

The hardest part may be slicing the meat thin enough, which fortunately I didn't have to do because the venison steaks were pretty thin already. A good sharp fillet knife would work for slicing thicker cuts, and if the meat is partially frozen it's easier to cut thin.

The strips are coated with a small amount of liquid smoke and seasoning. I used, as I do for so many other dishes, Louisiana brand Cajun seasoning. Then when the excess moisture has evaporated a bit, the meat strips are placed in a covered bowl overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, lay the strips on the oven racks, turn the oven on to about 150, just warm enough to dry the meat, and wait about 6 hours, checking every once in a while. When it's dry enough it should still bend a little, but not feel plump or "juicy" anywhere. The seasoned flavor really comes out when most of the moisture is gone.

We need to get more deer next year.

By the way, the recipe book that appears in this and the preceding post is a wealth of tips and recipes for wild game: Wild in the Kitchen, by Bob Schranck. It's probably out of print, so I'm trying not to spill too much on our copy.

pickled northern pike

The Hermit and I enjoy pickled fish on crackers as a winter appetizer. Pickled herring is readily available at the grocery store, but we much prefer pickled northern pike which can cost $4-$5 for a tiny jar containing maybe ten tiny chunks of fish. Luckily, northern pike are abundant here in Minnesota and the process of pickling them isn't exactly rocket science. And I think home-pickled northerns taste much better.

I suppose a catchy name for this recipe would be "pickled pickerel", but around here we don't call members of the Esocid family "pickerel". They are northern pike, or just simply "northern". Before the days of heavy fishing pressure and big motors and fish finders, there would be a 20 pound lunker or two lurking in every lake. Nowadays it is more common to find abundant numbers of northerns that are mostly 3 pounds or less. A lot of people don't like to mess with these "hammer handles", even though you can get good fillets off them, because they have "Y" bones that are like the little plastic filaments that hold the tags to your new shirt. These bones can be removed by cutting the fillets a certain way, but if you pickle the fish the bones dissolve completely.

I work with a guy who has recently rediscovered the tradition of fish spearing. He really doesn't like eating fish, however, so recently he gave me fillets from two northerns he had speared. I didn't want to bother with cutting out the "Y" bones, so instead I pickled them. I had recently "practiced" on some store-bought northern fillets, with excellent results.

With any wild-caught fish, there is the possibility of tapeworm cysts in the flesh, so it's a good idea to freeze the fillets for 48 hours, which will kill any cysts. Then, the first step is to cut the fish into bite size chunks. Put the fish into containers and cover with a brine of 2 cups white vinegar, 1/2 cup pickling salt, and about 1/2 cup pickling spice. Recipes will vary on how long to keep the fish in the brine, but usually it works out to be 5-6 days when I do it. Shake the fish every so often to make sure the brine gets everywhere.

After the brine is drained, soak the fish in fresh water for about half an hour or more. While the fish are soaking, prepare a mixture of 4 cups white vinegar, 2 cups sugar, 3 T. pickling spice and 2 tsp. mustard seed. Bring to a boil and let cool. Caution: if you let it boil for a few minutes in an area that is not well ventilated, you won't be able to breathe in the kitchen. Ask me how I know.

Then, layer the fish in jars with slices of white onion, and cover with the sauce. I pour a little white wine in each jar if I have any, and add some whole peppercorns. Refrigerate for a week or so, and enjoy. The home economist food police say pickled fish should be consumed within one month, but I see no reason why it would not keep longer in the refrigerator. Freshness dates on commercial pickled fish are up to a year.