Cranberry Sauce as Avoidance Mechanism

Thanksgiving is almost here and if you are still left with the ‘good guest’ question of ‘what shall I bring’, here’s the easiest thing yet. Now don’t be daunted if your host demurs, it may take 15 years or so (I’ll tell you about that another time), but you will eventually win the battle over the canned variety of Cranberry (faux) Sauce. I know that there are some amongst us who have a sentimental attachment to opening two sides of a can and listening to the sucking noise that accompanies jelly emergence. Hang in there, eventually the canned stuff will lose its celebrity and your homemade effort will be appreciated for its inherent cranberry-ness. So here we go. As in all things, there are always variations on a theme, but this is easy, basic and always a hit. In the time it took for me to take the ingredients photo, the sauce was done. Voila! Here’s how:

Ingredients you will need:

• A bag of cranberries (usually 12 oz.)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of orange juice (or a combination of water and oj)
• 2 teaspoons of grated orange rind (give or take)

Equipment:

• Colander
• Measuring cups (wet and dry, or not-this not a precise recipe)
• Your best saucepan (heavy is good)
• Something to grate with and some wax paper
• Something to get the juice out of your oranges
• A spoon
• And lastly, an apron. Cranberries stain!

Method:

• Wash your berries and while doing so, pick out and discard any nasty looking ones.
• Wash your oranges and using a grater (over wax paper or one of those flexible mats), grate off some rind from your oranges. Avoid the white pith under the skin, it’s bitter.
• Juice the oranges and measure. If you don’t have a full cup, add water to get a cup’s worth of liquid.
• Put your prepared ingredients and the cup of sugar into the saucepan (in other words put everything together).
• Stir and bring to a boil.
• When just at a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the berries pop (about 10 minutes).

Done! Once the berries have popped you can turn off the heat and let your sauce cool down. It will thicken as it cools. You just made sauce and maybe even a mini act of subversion for the holiday table. This sauce needs to be refrigerated but lasts a long time (that is if there is any left!).

Did I forget the “avoidance mechanism” part? Now that I’m warmed-up, it’s time to tackle that pastry dough! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Not Quite Nicoise

It’s still very hot in Brooklyn (who says there’s no such thing as Global Warming?). This means that we are still in our ‘Salad Days’. Salad in summer is the counterpart to soup in winter. You can make something special to recipe, or simply scour the supplies on hand to invent something yourself.

A Nicoise salad is a famous main course ‘composed’ salad that has potatoes, beans, eggs, tomatoes, tuna, anchovies, capers and its namesake, Nicoise olives. All this wonderful stuff rests on lettuce lightly dressed with a lemony dressing. Sounds great, doesn’t it? (OK, you can skip the anchovies, but you are really missing something… that goes for the capers too)

That said, rather than get all worked up about making an authentic recipe, I’d like to encourage you to make a Not Quite Nicoise. Get out your biggest bowl and start with the main structure, lettuce and some sort of dressing (here’s the Dijon dressing that we learned about). Now gather anything you like (within reason, let’s not get too silly). Most pantries have a can of tuna (drain it before using), an onion (purple? peeled and sliced very thin?), a sliced hard-boiled egg, maybe some beans and potatoes. Blanch the beans the way we cooked the Edamame. A simple guide to cooking potatoes follows. Get ready to assemble the ingredients and guess what? You’ve almost got a meal! All you need to do now is text a few friends and have them to stop by the bakery to get a nice loaf of bread. Wait until they arrive, dress the lettuce just before serving and compose (yourself)!

Boiled Potatoes
(I recommend small red or yellow ones with thin skins. Try to buy spuds of a similar size)

• Wash your potatoes and cut out any ‘eyes’ (small sprouts)
• You can cook them whole or cut them in quarters or similar sized pieces
• Place potatoes in a deep pot with cold water to cover and a large pinch of salt
• Bring to a boil (large rolling bubbles)
• Cook until tender. A skewer or sharp knife will go in easily when they are done. Try not to cook them into mush.
• Drain and let cool. This can be done way in advance and can be refrigerated in a tightly covered container for up to 3 days.

Footnote: I didn’t mention peeling, because I like the skins. It’s your choice!

Soba Enlightenment: Be Lucky!

Be careful what you wish for! Mamie finally got back to me and with more information than a novice soba eater can digest. After a few e-mail exchanges, I distilled the wealth of enlightenment down to a practical amount of information that will help to put you on the road to ‘all things soba’. Like any kitchen knowledge (or knowledge in general), it’s nice to build things up by degrees. When you are ready to make soba noodles from scratch, let me know. Mamie gave me the skinny (recipe) and I’ll be glad to share it with you when you’re inhabited by your inner culinary samurai. In the mean time, here’s some useful (and some fun) information.

Mamie tells me that Soba and Japanese culture cannot be separated. Soba is eaten for good luck, eaten on December 31 just before the New Year (also for good luck) and that the long lasting noodle symbolizes good luck (detecting a trend?), long lasting happiness and long life. This is serious stuff!

Soba can be eaten hot or cold. Hot means soup, and we can do that later. When it’s eaten cold, you want dipping sauce. Apparently the recipe I gave you is not Japanese (don’t tell me I didn’t warn you!). Mamie gave me a recipe for Dashi (a broth made with seaweed and dried tuna flakes…which may sound unappealing but is actually delicious) and we can also get to that later. What you need to know now, is that you can buy instant concentrated dashi at a supermarket that carries Japanese supplies. Simply dilute the concentrate with water and serve with some chopped scallions, wasabi (beautiful green Japanese horseradish) and some shredded seaweed (if you are going totally authentic).

Mamie recommends that you buy either dried or frozen soba noodles. Apparently the fresh stuff can be “very good or terrible”(that’s a direct quote). Generally soba is grey-brownish. The green noodles that are in this photo and the previous soba entry are made with green tea.

Click here for Mamie’s website, Japanese Cooking Studio. When you visit, check out the links about Japanese dining etiquette, how to hold chopsticks and a few recipes as well.

Thanks Mamie...I’m feeling lucky already!

Sugar Snaps: Vegetable Candy

What? Have I gone mad? Nope. I’m not talking about eating sugar. What I am talking about are Sugar Snap Peas. Sugar Snaps become available in late spring (and to be honest, I wrote this blog entry a month ago, so great was my anticipation), choose unblemished firm bright fat beautiful amazingly green pods.

You can blanch them (and we’ve talked about that… see ‘Snack for a Samurai’… if you do blanch, make it a quick one) or you can wash them and eat them just as they are. If there was ever a vegetable that yearned for a makeover as candy, this would be it. Sugar Snaps are seriously sweet, crunchy and delicious.

Not content to leave well enough alone? Here’s a recipe for Sugar Snap Peas with Mint Leaves that I came across (don't tell anyone) in a Martha Stewart book.

Lightly blanch 1 pound of peas, drain and chill in a bowl of ice water. Drain again. In a large bowl, toss with 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves and 2 Tablespoons of the dressing recipe that follows. Fresh, seasonal and holding a promise that summer is just around the corner, this salad (that will serve 4) is also a ‘snap’ to make!

Combine in a medium bowl:

1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
a dash of kosher salt and a few grinds of pepper

Whisk in:

2 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 Tablespoons of canola oil

This vinaigrette will keep (tightly covered) for about 2 days in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Soba Now, Mamie Later

What do I know about Soba? Not a whole lot, but after I speak to Mamie, I'll be back with more information. Mamie is from Japan and expert in all things Soba. She is sure to deliver some Soba Enlightenment soon.

Why can’t I wait to speak with Mamie? Because when Sylvia was home last week, we made a very quick and delicious lunch of soba noodles with dipping sauce. The weather is warming up and this seems like excellent information to have under any apron belt.

Start by making the dipping sauce. The flavors can get acquainted with one another while you cook the noodles.

I’m sure there are a million variations (and this is a good place to get creative on your own), but here’s what Sylvia and I made (from Epicurious) and it was a hit.

In a bowl combine:

• 8 Tablespoons of Light Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of Toasted Sesame Oil
• 2 Tablespoons of water
• 1/3 cup of chopped scallions (long skinny green onions- cut off and discard the rooty end and a bit of the top first)
• 4 Tablespoons of pickled ginger, drained

Now for the noodles. Cooking soba is practically identical to cooking pasta. You can review Pasta For Beginners if you're feeling rusty. The biggest difference between what we did last December and what we are doing now is that these noodles will be eaten cold. You should probably skip the extra salt in the water as well (that is unless Mamie says otherwise. I’ll get back to you on this one. In the meantime, there will be plenty of salty-ness in the dipping sauce).

Cook the soba according to the directions on the packet. This means in boiling water for about 6 minutes. Have a large bowl of ice water waiting. When the soba is done ( test a strand to see if it still has a little bite and is not mushy and over cooked) drain, and immediately put the cooked soba into the bowl of waiting ice water. Let it cool completely and drain again (remember your colander?).

Lunch (or snack) time! Here’s a nice little demonstration on YouTube . Basically, your expertly cooked cold noodles (I have every confidence in you) visit the sauce as they travel from plate to dipping sauce to a very happy mouth.