Chickpea and Spinach Dip

This is inspired by the palak paneer, but way less effort.  For one thing, I decided not to be snobby and buy frozen spinach.

I'm calling it a dip, but it's more like a creamy side dish.  Think chunky mashed potato texture.  I wasn't exactly in the mood for hummus, but something close to it.

2/3 C dry chickpeas or 1 can, rinsed
2 C frozen spinach
*1/4 C diced red onion
*1 clove garlic, minced
salt and white pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
2 Tb olive oil
Greek yogurt for garnish

1.  The day before, soak chickpeas in 3 C water for a minimum of 12 hours.  Drain.  Refill pot with water and simmer beans for at least 2 hours.  Drain.

2.  Cook spinach in a saucepan with a few tablespoons of water until wilted and warm.  In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Sautée onion until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper and heat until fragrant.

3.  Place spinach and onion mix in food processor.  Run until smooth.  Add drained cooked chickpeas and pulse.  Add more olive oil for a thinner consistency.

4.  Serve hot, with yogurt for garnish.

Difficulty rating  :)

Rolled Fish Fillets with Dill Sauce

The second cookbook I flipped through, Sunset magazine's Easy Basics for Good Cooking (1982), wasn't the recipe bonanza the first had been.  It's very basic, and compiled by someone obsessed with sherry, tarragon, and bacon.  This person had no idea what to do with vegetables and gave beans a passing glance.  It kind of looks like something a guy might use to impress his girlfriend with rudimentary culinary skills.  Yes, that sounds sexist, but think 1982.

I did find a few things worth trying.  This fish recipe came off as elegant and is broken down into easy steps, as the book's title suggests.  None of the recipes are particularly complex.  With the weather settling into a normal summer pattern, it's a stretch for me to make hot dinners at all.  Pretty impressed that I could make this in a single skillet in less than an hour.  I was also impressed that it called for half&half instead of full cream.  It doesn't lighten the calories all that much, but it's a start.

The original recipe called for sole, but the market only had tilapia or cod for their white fillet options.  I'm not fond of tilapia and got the cod.  Kind of broke the grocery budget, but this recipe makes a lot. Two pounds of fish means you can have this at a dinner party for six and a couple of people get seconds.

2 lbs white fish fillets (8 small fillets like sole or tilapia, or cut up larger ones like halibut or cod)
1/4 C butter, divided
1 small carrot
1 stalk celery
1 small leek
salt, pepper, and dill weed to taste
1/2 C dry white wine
2 Tb flour
1/2 C half-and-half
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1.  To prepare the veggies, cut carrot and celery in julienne strips about 2" long.  Cut the whites of the leek into similar 2" strips.  Discard the greens or save for stock.

2.  Melt 2 Tb butter in a large skillet with a lid.  Stir in vegetables and cook over medium 2 minutes.  Cover pan, reduce heat to low, and cook until veggies are soft, about 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool a bit.

3.  Working in batches, set fillets on a work surface.  If needed, cut into smaller pieces and/or slice laterally to make no thicker than 1/2".  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dill.  I put too much pepper on mine.  By the time you can see it, there's at least enough.  Place a small bundle of the steamed vegetables on one end and roll up fish.  Place seam-side down in the skillet (off the heat).  Repeat until all fillets are filled and arrange in the skillet.

4.  Add the wine and enough water to come up at least 1/2".  Bring to just below a boil over medium-high heat, then lower to a simmer and cover.  Cook until fish is opaque, never allowing the water to come to a full boil, about 10-15 minutes.  Remove rolls to a platter and keep warm while you prepare the sauce.

5.  Strain out 1 cup of poaching liquid and discard the rest.  Combine it with the half-and-half.  Make a roux with the remaining 2 Tb butter and the flour.  Cook in the skillet until no longer floury, then add the cream mixture.  Bring to a boil, stirring, until thickened.  Taste and add salt, pepper, and dill as desired.  Spoon over fish.

Serves 6-8

Difficulty rating  :)

Masala Chai

My recent adventures into Indian cooking led me to a chai recipe.  Plus, I had bought more green cardamom pods than I needed for the palak paneer.

The first result of my research was a language lesson.  Chai means tea.  Saying "Chai Tea" is like saying "La Brea Tar Pits".  Bit of redundancy.  What a person really means is "Masala Chai", or "Spiced Tea".

I also learned that, like any recipe based on a spice mix, the ingredients are a personal choice.  The majority are what one would consider sweet spices, but there are hints of savory and "spicy" in there too.  Kind of like putting cayenne in Mexican hot chocolate.  I admit that I'm sticking closer to the sweet spice side, but I'm also not putting in as much sugar as most of the recipes.  I couldn't find star anise and didn't feel like going to another market, so I'm subbing in whole allspice.  You can do things like that with a malleable, spice-driven recipe.

I'm also putting in the tea later.  Chai recipes generally have you boil the spices and tea leaves together for five minutes.  That sounds far too bitter to me, so I'm boiling the spices for five and adding the tea after all the other ingredients for another ten off the heat.  There's still a strong tea flavor because of the quantity used, but the bitterness of brewing too long is removed.

As for the tea, I did not find any recommendations on what blend to use, other than it should be loose leaf.  It must be a personal choice.  I would stay away from a scented one like Earl Grey.  Plain varieties include Orange Pekoe (Lipton), Assam, English Breakfast, and Ceylon.  Darjeeling has a more delicate flavor, if you want less "tea" in your chai.

1 whole star anise or *4 whole allspice
*4 whole cloves
4 cardamom pods
4 whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2" cinnamon stick, broken in a few pieces
2 C water
*2C milk
2 Tb sugar
2 Tb loose leaf black tea

1.  Crack open cardamom pods and star anise.  Add to a saucepan with remaining spices and the water.  Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes, until the mixture smells like the finished chai.

2.  Add milk and sugar and bring back up to a low boil.  Be careful not to scorch the milk by stirring frequently.  Remove from heat, stir in tea leaves, and cover.  Steep 5-10 minutes, depending how strong you like your tea.

Action shot

3.  Strain mixture into cups.  If you can find them, drop a cardamom skin into each mug.

4.  Chai can be served hot or over ice.  Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Makes 1 quart: 4 mug servings or 8-12 Indian servings.

Difficulty rating  π

Boysenberry Ice Cream

The next time I had an accumulation of boysenberries, it was starting to get warm.  Time for homemade ice cream!

My personal ice cream affection is for something in the chocolate and/or mint family, but it's hard to pass up an ice cream made from something I picked myself.  (See Beet Ice Cream)

I went with an eggless, non-custard recipe for this one.  I'm also going light on the cream and more into ice-milk territory.  None of the recipes I researched included sugar.  Either the developers have a fondness for a tart berry, or I'm picking these far too early.  I chose to cook mine down with some of the simple syrup from the one jar of preserved berries that didn't seal.  Not a huge amount of sugar, but enough to reduce the sting.

You can substitute blackberries or raspberries in the same volume.  I made this recipe roughly equal to three 5-6oz packages.  Not everyone has a berry bush in their yard.

This recipe does rely on the possession of an ice cream maker.  If you don't have one, you can pour the mixture into a loaf pan and rake a fork through it every 30 minutes in the freezer until firm.  I vote for spending $50 on an ice cream maker.

*3 C boysenberries
1/2 C sugar or 2/3 C boysenberry simple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 C heavy whipping cream
*1 C half-and-half

1.  Rinse berries.  Combine in a pot with the sugar or simple syrup and bring to a low boil.  Skim off foam as necessary, like you were making jam, but don't let the mixture get to any setting temperature.  Reduce by about half, which will take longer if you're using the added water of simple syrup.  Allow to cool until no longer steaming.

2.  This step is optional.  If you want a seedless, smooth product, run the cooked berries through a food mill or sieve.  For an ice cream with a bit of texture, proceed to the next step.  I just smashed the berries while they were cooking.  I like chunky ice cream.

3.  Stir in cream, half-and-half, and vanilla.  Cool in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

4.  Process in ice cream maker to a soft-serve consistency.  Place in final container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving, to firm up.

5.  If necessary, let sit on the counter to soften before scooping.

Makes about 1 quart

Difficulty rating  :)

Poutine (Not from Scratch)

I had every intention of making this the hard way, until I actually read some recipes.  You have to cook the meat to get drippings for the gravy, slice and fry the potatoes, and goodness help you if you choose to make the cheese curds yourself.  The link is for an easier version that uses canned broth.

There was also the leftovers factor.  I don't cook every day, and fries don't reheat well.  If I ever make this for a party, I'll get out the gigantic deep fryer and at least do that part right.  Frozen potato sticks are easy to pop in the oven in small batches.

The cheese curds were the hard part.  I had to wait a few months for Sprouts to get them in stock.  They did, just in time for Canada Day, which I fail to see as a coincidence.  I didn't feel like going to Whole Foods for just one item, although that's about all I can afford there.  If you can't find the white cheddar curds, diced white cheddar or those little mozzarella balls can be used.

This is not trying to be exactly like true Canadian poutine.  It's the cheap American knock-off that you can make in 20 minutes for a backyard BBQ.  If no one has ever had the real thing, they won't know the difference.  Maybe someday I'll post a truer version, but don't hold your breath.

4 C frozen unseasoned french fries, the thicker cut
*1 packet brown gravy mix (4 servings)
1 C white cheddar curds
black pepper to taste

1.  Preheat oven and cook fries according to package directions.  Some brands may want you to fry them.  The store-brand ones came out just fine in the oven.

2.  While the fries are going, prepare gravy according to the packet, adding black pepper as desired.  Plenty of black pepper is a thing in poutine gravy.

3.  Mound hot fries on serving plate.  Distribute curds evenly on fries.  Pour hot gravy over everything, making sure it hits the curds so they can get oozy.  Serve hot.  The fork in the photo is not a mistake.  You're supposed to eat these with one.  Canada is more civilized than the U.S.

Difficulty rating  π

Palak Paneer

This was the second recipe I tried out of my high school cookbook.  Even though I'd never had it before, I was pretty sure it was supposed to have more than four ingredients.  Yes, the title literally translates to "Spinach and Paneer", but just onion and a touch of ginger to spice it up?  Even I know better than that.

What surprised me was that there's tomato in it.  The taste is overwhelmingly that of spinach.  The tomato is treated kind of like an herb.  It's like when you use a touch of tomato paste in something but it doesn't overwhelm.  The tomato here becomes part of the spice mix.

I gave this a label of "soups", even though it's really closer to a stew.  If you need to put it in a bowl and use a spoon, I consider it soup.

Not that you really need to know this, but three Indian dishes in an afternoon left an appalling amount of dishes.  I do pride myself on how quickly I can clean up the kitchen after a dinner party.  This menu came close to tidying up from a tea, and it was only four servings.  I need to be more careful.


3 Tb olive oil, divided
8 oz Indian Palak or regular fresh spinach
6-8 oz paneer (or feta if unavailable)
6 black peppercorns
1 green cardamom pod
*2 whole cloves
3/4 C diced red onion
1 Tb grated ginger
*2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Thai chili, optional
1 Roma tomato, diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika (or chili powder for spicier)
1/4 C cream for serving (optional)

1.  Wash and remove stems from spinach.  I kept reminding myself this was the hardest part of the recipe.  Drain.

2.  Drizzle 1 Tb oil into a large skillet or saucepan with a lid.  Add spinach, cover, and cook until wilted.  Stir every few minutes to avoid over cooking the bottom.  Once spinach has cooled slightly, run through the blender or food processor into a purée.  Set aside.

3.  Cut paneer into 1" cubes and soak in boiling water.  Do not do this step if using feta.

4.  Crush peppercorns and cardamom pod in a mortar and pestle.  Discard cardamom skin, or save for chai.  And this recipe is serious about only 6 peppercorns.  I used a few more than that and no chili, and it was still spicy.

5.  Rinse off the skillet you used for the spinach and add remaining oil.  Add onions and cook over medium until soft.  Add spices and cook into a paste.  Add chili, if using, and diced tomato.  Cook until everything breaks down into a mush, about 10 minutes.

6.  Add spinach, salt to taste, and water as needed for desired consistency.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and add drained paneer.  Allow to simmer for 10 minutes, checking for consistency and adding water as needed.

7.  Serve hot, with a drizzle of cream if desired.

Difficulty  :)

Aloo Gobi

The first never-used cookbook I pulled off the shelf was international recipes from the parents and staff at my high school.  Yep, been forgotten for decades.  Not sure why it lasted this long, except that my mom's recipe for vichyssoise is in it.  It's slightly different than mine, and I feel like it makes way more than the 6 servings she posted.

I bookmarked over a dozen things I want to make.  Most of them are dinner party-worthy.  However, nearly all of them are meat-centric, and I was on my vegetarian rotation.  I settled on the sides for one of the Indian menus.

Being a self-published compilation, there was no recipe testing and minimal proofreading.  Since I don't go out for Indian food, I went online to double-check these surprisingly easy recipes, only to find out that a whole bunch of ingredients and steps were missing from both of the recipes I had chosen.  I'm still sticking as close to the original recipes as possible, but updating them for a more worldly type of home cook with access to a much greater variety of ingredients.  All the specialty items were right in front of me in the bulk spices at Sprouts, but you can substitute ground spices for whole.  Just use half as much.

*2 cloves garlic, minced
*1 Tb grated fresh ginger
*1 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chili powder
salt to taste
1/4 C finely diced onion
1 serrano pepper (optional)
2 Tb oil
1 large russet potato, cut in 1/2" dice
1 small cauliflower, cut in small florets
1 C water

1.  In a mortar and pestle, or a spice grinder, grind together garlic, ginger, coriander, and cumin into a chunky paste.

2.  In a large skillet or saucepan with a lid, warm oil over medium heat.  Add wet masala (spices), then the remaining dry spices and salt.  If going for spicy, slice serrano pepper and add to the mix.  Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add onion and cook until it has softened.

3.  Add potato and cauliflower to the skillet.  Toss the pieces to coat evenly in the spice mix.  That tiny bit of turmeric will make the whole dish yellow, so you can see that the spices are distributed.  Add 1 C water, cover, and lower heat to medium-low.  Steam for 25 minutes, until potato is cooked.  Remove lid and cook another 5 minutes to reduce the sauce.  Serve hot.

Difficulty rating  :)

Fresh Berries in Syrup

All those beautiful, white blossoms from May have turned into scads of boysenberries.  I boiled a handful down into a quick jam, made a patty-pan pie with the last of some pie crust, and still had nearly a quart left over, with more on the verge of ripening.

Yes, I could have made boysenberry jam, but the point of the bush is to have the berries in a fashion that you can't buy in the store.

The Ball Book of Home Preserving has a generic recipe for berries in syrup.  Compound berries use the raw-pack method, while firm berries can use the hot pack.  We're going to focus in this post on the first version.  What you get is similar to canned fruit like Dole or Del Monte, only berries.  These berries can be used whenever you want a slightly sweeter piece of fruit, like in a drink, on cottage cheese, or in yogurt.  They can be put on a salad, served with meat, or dropped into oatmeal.  The leftover syrup is now flavored; you can use it to sweeten iced tea for a berry enhancement, mix with soda water for punch, or drizzle it onto a cake layer.

And this is also the easiest processed canning thing I've done, even easier than pickles.  You boil the syrup, raw pack the washed berries, and process.  The most time-consuming part is waiting for the water to boil.

1 dry quart compound berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc)
3/4 C sugar
1-1/4 C water

1.  Boil a large pot of water.  Wash canning jars for a 1 quart yield.  (I used wide-mouth half-pint jars.)  Sterilize jars and rims in boiling water and place lids in simmering water to soften.

2.  Wash berries well.  Remove any stems or caps.  Discard any mushy or spoiled berries.

3.  In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil.  Keep at a low boil for about 5 minutes, to make sure the sugar is fully dissolved.  Don't boil so hard that it reduces.

4.  Fill each jar with berries to 1/2" of rim.  Funnel in syrup to the same level.  Poke with a clean chopstick or skewer to remove air bubbles, then add more syrup if needed.  All of the berries will not be submerged; they float, and will cook down a bit in the canner anyway.

5.  Wipe rims clean.  Center warm lids, secure rims finger-tight, and place in boiling water bath.  Process for 15 minutes.  Remove from canner and allow to cool to room temperature.  Any jars that do not seal should be refrigerated promptly and used within a couple of weeks.  Once the jars have cooled, remove rims and wipe the jars clean.  Store in a cool place, away from sunlight, for up to 1 year.

Makes 1 quart

Difficulty rating  :)

Part XII: Cooking the Books

Techie Smurf and his family did a Kon Mari of their house this year.  Visiting, I noticed it mainly in their bookshelves and linen closet.  Their home was never cluttered before, but they did have a lot of "stuff", as most of us do.

Inspired by that, as much as an upcoming room remodel, I've been trimming down my own possessions.  I'm doing more of a Swedish Death Cleaning approach, since it takes others into account and isn't all about my personal "joy".  I'm finding that other family members want many of the things I thought I'd be "burdening" them with.  To be fair, I'm getting down to the good stuff that I simply never use.  This is going to be a posh garage sale.

When I got to the cookbooks, I started flipping through each one before deciding I didn't want it.  You know what, some of the ones I never open have a lot of good recipes in them!  I've gotten used to googling recipes on themes I want to make.  When you flip through a cookbook, you have a greater chance of finding a recipe that never crossed your mind.

So I'm going to try to use my cookbooks more.  I'll read through them, make sticky tabs of things that look worthwhile, and actually make dishes with the wisdom of those who came before.  I'm counting Grandma Sophie's recipe box as a "cookbook", especially the cards older than I am.  Since I'm doing that, I'm also going to count the L.A. Times and any magazine recipes that are worthy of clipping.

There will almost certainly be original recipes in here too.  Odds are, I'll start with something in a book and update it to this century.  Current food trends will still be explored.  I don't have that many cookbooks.

Small-Batch Tagliatelle

Nothing disrupts my cooking routine so much as being invited out to dinner at the last minute.  The defrosting chicken thighs had to sit in the fridge an extra day while I figured out how to make the contents of the fridge and pantry work until the next time I had a chance to shop.  Two servings of pasta to add to the chicken when the last of the restaurant leftovers ran out seemed like the best route.

Tagliatelle is the first kind of pasta I learned how to make.  Grandma Sophie called them "noodles", possibly because we were under 10 and that's what you can get kids to eat.  We rolled them out, folded the dough, sliced it, and let them dry a bit on a cookbook stand before boiling.  Modern techniques skip the drying part.  I also got out the pasta roller, which is not necessary but I felt like it. I should use that thing more often.  It's fun.

I'm posting the 4-serving version, which is just double what's in the photos.  Exact same procedure.  All decent pasta recipes go by weights, with 100g (3.2 oz) flour per egg.  Just accept that you need a food scale and move on.  There are sites online with approximate volumes by weight for various ingredients.  Most food scales have a metric/pounds toggle switch.

200g/ 6.4 oz flour, plus more for rolling
2 eggs
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more for the pot

1.  Stir together salt and flour (I used half whole wheat flour).  Either in a bowl or on a work surface, form a volcano.  Crack the egg into it and add the oil.

2.  Using a fork, beat the egg in the well of the flour, gradually bringing in more flour as you go.  You're going to end up with a crumbly mixture, almost like you were making scones.

3.  Knead the dough until smooth, 5-10 minutes.  If it's really insisting on being dry and crumbly, wet your hands and shake off most of the water.  When you're done, you should have picked up all the stray bits of dough from your surface and created a seam-free ball.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate a minimum of 30 minutes, and up to 4 hours.   This allows the glutens to relax and all of the flour to hydrate.

4.  Start boiling a large pot of salted water.  Cut ball into four pieces for easier handling.  Either roll out dough thinly with a rolling pin on a floured surface into a rectangle, or roll into a sheet on #5 or #6 thickness in a pasta roller according to machine directions.

5.  Fold the long sides together, then together again.  Slice 3/4" thick strips with a sharp knife and unfold.  They can hang out on the board while you wait for the water to boil and make whatever sauce you want.

6.  Cook in boiling water until al dente, about 6 minutes.  They do get a little bigger than what you started with.  You'll know it's done when you can stir with no risk of the pasta crumbling, but not so overcooked that they're falling apart.  Drain and serve with anything from just olive oil and herbs to a whole lot of toppings.  I topped this batch of pasta after taking the photos.

Difficulty rating  :)