Salmon and Artichoke Kugel

I had planned to make a salmon salad for lunches during Passover, but it was cold and rainy half the time and I made matzoh pizzas instead.  This left me with a can of salmon in the pantry.  I had also bought a brick of cream cheese in case the munchies led me to bake a cheesecake.  You never know.  Then I ended up with half a dozen artichokes about to bloom at the same time, and here's a recipe.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a kugel is basically the Jewish name for a noodle or potato casserole.  It can be sweet or savory.  Kugel can be served for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert.  It often contains cheese and is usually held together with an egg custard.

As for the noodles, yeah, good luck getting any right now.  I skipped buying pasta in the pre-panic days because of Passover.  Honestly, I didn't even try for this and just made a 2-egg/200g batch of Pasta #2.

I used fresh baby artichokes because that's what I had in the garden, but I'm recommending frozen in this recipe.  Anyone still going to Farmers' Markets can spend an hour doing it the hard way.  I want to know who bought all the boxes of frozen artichokes.  Someone in my neighborhood must have 8 of them.

Not gonna lie, there were a lot of dishes.  You'll have slightly less when using pre-packaged items, and it will cut an hour off the preparation time.  They were all washed by the time the casserole came out of the oven.

*1 15 oz can pink salmon, drained
*1 C frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and chopped
8 oz dry egg noodles (about 3 C)
*4 oz cream cheese
1 egg
1/2 C milk
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tb butter
*1 C diced yellow onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dill
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
*1/4 C grated parmesan cheese

1.  Start cooking noodles according to package directions.  Use first tablespoon of butter to grease an 8" x 8" casserole.  Preheat oven to 350º.

2.  In a small skillet, sauté diced onion in the other tablespoon of butter over medium heat until softened.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, another minute.  Remove from heat and set aside.

3.  In food processor, pulse together cream cheese, egg, salt, pepper, dill, and red pepper flakes.  Add milk and turn into a sauce.

4.  Drain noodles when done and return to the pasta pot.  Add salmon, chopped artichokes, cooked onion, and cream sauce.  Toss to coat, then pour into casserole.  Top with parmesan, cover with foil or a lid, and cook 20 minutes, until sauce is bubbly.  Remove foil and cook until cheese on top is browned, another 5-10 minutes.  Allow to sit until no longer bubbling, about 5 minutes, then serve.

Difficulty rating  :)

Quarantine Garden

Artie

In California, garden nurseries were declared essential services because they sell the means for people to grow their own food.  Even apartment dwellers can put a pot of tomatoes or other veggie on the balcony and a few herbs in the window.  Gardening is also solitary exercise, which is what we're being encouraged to do.

Armstrong Garden Centers went to online orders.  You can get delivery or curbside pickup.  I wasn't sure what I wanted and went to Home Depot instead.  I needed other stuff there anyway, and it's closer to my home.  I was originally going to pick up seeds while I was at Sprouts, but everyone else had the same idea and they only have a small display of them to start with.

After standing in line for 10 minutes just to get in, I didn't find any seedlings I wanted.  Fine, tossed in a bag of soil and headed over to the seed display.  This one was well-stocked.  I avoided nightshades and gourds, going instead for kale, cauliflower, and beets.  It's kind of late in the season for all of them.  I did this shopping on March 31st, when the latest you can realistically plant any of these in my area is mid-April.  It gets hot here the week of the 4th of July, and these are cool-weather plants.

Of course, this wasn't starting from scratch garden-wise.  I had a mature arugula and several sprouts of it.  In the Pond I still had a radish, about a dozen carrots, and some pea vines.  The last is finally starting to flower, so I'll have peas soon.  Two of the three artichokes were starting to bud, and the citrus tree had ripe fruit.  Plus, there is food at the store.  Now.

Total for the seeds and soil was $12.96.  There's no way I'm going to grow that much in food, but the exercise and entertainment of gardening is worth something when you're not doing much else.  At the very least, it gets you out into the sunshine for Vitamin D and a melatonin reset.

Spaghetti Squash and Quinoa Soup

Sorry, forgot to post this part of the Seder.

Looking for ways to minimize serve-yourself dishes at the meal, I came up with this soup.  The idea was a clear vegetable broth, so you could see the squash strands, and a spoonful of tri-color quinoa to perk it up.

I had fun with the service.  Last time I was on a cruise, they had a great way to serve soup.  They brought a bowl with the chunky parts in it, then a teapot with the hot liquid.  The servers did not have to carry bowls of hot soup, and it made for a cute presentation.  Now that my dining room is a bit of a walk from the kitchen, I did the same thing here.  My guest loved the novelty, and I'm definitely doing it again.

1 small spaghetti squash (about 2 lbs)
1/2 C dry quinoa
1 quart vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste

1.  To cook the squash, preheat oven to 375º.  Wash gourd and puncture in several places so it doesn't explode.  Place on a rimmed baking sheet or in a roasting pan.  Bake 1 hour, turn over, and bake an additional 30 minutes.  Allow to cool enough to handle, about 30 minutes.  Cut in half, scoop out seeds, and use a fork to pull apart spaghetti-like fibers.  This can be done ahead, even a day or two before.

2.  Cook quinoa according to package instructions.  This may include a pre-soak.  Fluff with a fork.  Can also be done ahead.

3.  Heat broth to boiling.  Check for seasonings and adjust as needed.

4.  Place squash fibers and about 1/3 C of quinoa in each bowl.  Pour in hot broth (teapot serving optional) and serve.

Difficulty rating  :)

Toilet Paper Cake

I decided I wanted an Oreo cake for my birthday, but had not decided how to decorate it.  Then these became a trend on YouTube, and I had to buy into the joke.

This design is several years old, and mainly reserved for Over-the-Hill parties or bridal showers.  Poop cupcakes can adorn the display at a party.  Which no one is having right now.  I digress.

There are all-buttercream versions of this, but I decided the easiest way to do it was a strip of fondant around the outer edge.  Buttercream just doesn't drape.  There are pattern sheets and rollers for fondant you can buy, but I haven't been working much and discretionary spending is non-existent.  I'm grateful I do still have a job.  So I picked through cookie cutters and decided on the last piece I have left from my old Easy Bake Oven supplies from the '80s, an odd little cutter with four designs on it.

You can go for realistic dimensions if you want, and make a 2-layer (2-ply?) 4" cake.  I did a 2-layer 6", which is close enough, and made cupcakes with the remaining batter from the original recipe.  Everyone will get the joke.

2 6" cake layers, preferably a white or light cake
White buttercream frosting
Cocoa powder or food coloring for core
Filling of choice
About 8 oz white fondant
Toothpicks and/or cookie cutters for deisgns

1.  Trim, fill, and crumb coat cakes on a cardboard cake circle.  I didn't trim mine flat enough and ended up with a ton of filling.  I tried to compensate by making the crumb coat thin, and you can see above that it showed through the fondant.  Chill to set.

2.  Do a top coat on the cake in buttercream, just to make sure the cake won't show through.  Reserve about a tablespoon of buttercream for later.  Make the frosting on the top of the cake a minimum of 1/4".  Measure the height of the cake.  Chill while you roll the fondant.

3.  Roll a strip of fondant 1/8" thick on a well-cornstarched surface 24" by the height of your cake.  Mine was 3-3/4".  Trim even, then lightly press designs into the strip.  Make lines to square off the "sheets" of TP.

4.  Smooth the buttercream before doing the fondant.  I finally remembered to save a butter wrapper for the purpose.  It's like wearing a wax paper glove and does a great job.  Moisten the surface of the buttercream with water and carefully transfer the strip of fondant to the cake.  It should extend at least one square past the circumference so it can be draped.  Trim off any fondant that is too high above the rim of the cake or extends too far at the end.

5.  Turn the remaining buttercream a light brown, either with food coloring or cocoa powder.  Use a small, round cookie cutter to cut a 1/2" deep hole in the center of the cake.  Excavate it (snack) and line the hole with the brown frosting to be the core.  With a comb frosting tool or a toothpick make circles around the top of the cake to resemble the cut end of a TP roll.

6.  Do not freeze cake once the fondant has been applied, but it can be refrigerated, covered in plastic wrap, for a day or two.  Allow to come to room temperature for serving.

Serves about 8, more if you make the cupcakes

Difficulty rating  :)

Peking Duck

Hey, there's a duck in my freezer.  I need to do something with that.

Surprisingly, in this culturally sensitive time, most recipes still call this Peking Duck.  There are a few variations of the name, some using the current spelling of Beijing and others calling it Chinese Crispy Duck.  I'm going with the Bible's version.  It's from the 1970s, but I picked it mainly because it's easy.  Two days, but easier than most recipes I found and I only had to buy the sauce.

All Peking duck recipes come with the recipe for the pancakes, which are basically flour tortillas.  If the recipe you're using doesn't, move along.  I found it interesting that you make them in pairs and separate them as you go.  Kind of like doing laminated dough but eating each layer separately.  They come out thinner that way and twice as fast.

This does take two days, so you can't simply decide in the morning that you want Peking Duck.  The point of the first day is to prime and season the skin, so the slow-roasting process can crisp it and render off the excess fat.  It's why Chinese markets and restaurants often run out of it.  There's so much timing involved, they only make what they know they can sell.

I'm assuming the calorie count in the Bible's breakdown includes the 4 pancakes per serving and sauce, because it's close to 1,200.  I've been losing weight on lockdown, so this isn't really an issue for me, but that's a lot.  It's really amazing how fast you lose weight when you don't eat out and don't buy snacks to have in the house.

As for all that rendered fat, yes it's sherry-maple flavored, but it's still a flavoring fat.  There's a lot of it, too.  I ended up with about a cup.  I saved it for sautéing veggies or flavoring beans.  Ooh, put it on potatoes instead of butter.  (It is going to be a long time before I buy potatoes again.)

There were more ducks in the freezer at the market for a good price.  Even during these times, there are some things people just don't want to buy.  Thinking of getting another one for the heck of it.

*1 duck, about 5 lbs, defrosted
5 qts boiling water
1 Tb kosher salt
*1 Tb dry or cooking sherry
*1/4 C maple (or maple-flavored) syrup
1/2 C hoisin sauce
*4 green onions, sliced in 2" pieces
*cilantro for garnish

1.  The morning of Day 1, start to prepare the duck.  Unwrap thawed duck and remove giblets.  Place on a rack in a large roasting pan or the sink and slowly pour boiling water over all sides.  Skin will start to look white.  Drain thoroughly.  Transfer rack to a shallow baking dish and scrub sink clean.

2.  Pat skin and body cavity dry with paper towels.  Rub cavity with salt and sherry.  Refrigerate, breast side down, uncovered.  Sorry, the fridge is going to smell like raw duck for a couple of days.

3.  The evening of Day 1, get the duck back out and brush on all sides with maple syrup.  Put it back in the fridge, again uncovered.  The idea is for the fridge fan to dry it out so the skin can get crispy.

4.  5 hours before serving, you finally put it in the oven.  Roast at a mere 175º, using the convection fan if you have one, for 1-1/2 hours.  Turn oven up to 325º, turn duck breast-side down, and roast another 1-1/2 hours.  This second roast is when I made the pancakes.  Turn duck right-side up and continue to cook until skin is crispy, up to 1-1/2 hours.  Peking duck is more about the skin than the meat, which is going to be slightly overdone.  Pull from oven and allow to rest until cool enough to slice into 1" strips.

As for the pan, you could use foil on the bottom if you're not concerned about saving the fat.  I used glass instead of metal so I could soak off all that burned maple syrup.  Two days of soaking and the occasional scrub took care of it.

Thin Pancakes
2-1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 C boiling water
vegetable oil

1.  Combine flour and salt.  Gradually add boiling water, blending with a fork, until mixture is pea-sized.  Warning, it smells pretty gross.  Knead on a lightly floured surface into a soft, smooth dough, about 5 minutes.

2.  Shape into a log and cut 16 slices.  I used a scale to double-check by weight.  Roll each slice into a ball and cover with a damp cloth.  These tend to dry out.

3.  Work with the balls two at a time.  Flatten each into a circle 3" in diameter.  Brush tops with oil, then place oiled sides together.  Roll into an 8" diameter circle on a lightly floured surface.  Turn pancakes over several times while rolling to keep them even.

4.  In an ungreased 8" skillet over medium heat, cook pancakes about 3 minutes on each side, until lightly browned.  Remove to a plate and peel apart layers as soon as they're cool enough to touch.  Cover with a towel or foil while you work on the next pair, so they don't dry out.  If you need to reheat them, cover with a damp paper towel and microwave until soft, about 30 seconds.

5.  To assemble Peking duck, place a dab of sauce on a pancake.  Add several slices of green onion, a few slices of duck, and maybe some cilantro leaves.  Fold up and eat by hand.

Difficulty rating  :-0

Vegan Cardamom Ice Cream

This is how I googled the notion, and you wouldn't believe how many recipes came up.  Well, you would if that's how you got here.  I thought this was going to be another thing I had to make up on my own, but it's out there.

Without eggs, this recipe comes together super fast.  It's a lot like making masala chai, and there were many recipes for masala chai ice cream made this way on the recipe search.  Steep the cardamom in the hot coconut cream mixture, chill, then process in the ice cream maker.  No middle step of tempering egg yolks or concerns that it will curdle.

Aside from being vegan, this is also KLP pareve.  That was important, since I was making a meat meal.  I got to break out my homemade vanilla and cinnamon extracts too.  So much fun to see the self-isolation projects getting used.

This is insanely high in saturated fat.  Scoop small portions.  I questioned whether it was too unhealthy to be on this blog.  But, well, we all need comfort food right now.  At least taxes aren't due today.  Portion control and all things in moderation.

1 15 oz can full-fat coconut milk
1 15 oz can coconut cream
3/4 C light brown sugar, lightly packed
8 green cardamom pods
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 cinnamon)

1.  In a medium saucepan, warm coconut milk and cream until fluid.  Crack cardamom pods and add, with seeds, to pot.  Also add ground cardamom.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

2.  Stir in sugar until dissolved.  The mixture will turn a lovely light caramel color.  Remove from heat and stir in extract.  Allow to steep for 20 minutes.

3.  Strain mixture through a sieve to catch pods and the larger seeds.  Discard and chill mixture to refrigerated temperature, about 3 hours.

4.  Run through ice cream maker to soft-serve consistency.  Pour into freezing container.  Freeze until firm, about 4 hours, raking with a fork every hour to maintain texture.

Makes about 1 quart, 8 servings

Difficulty rating  π

Seder 2020

The calendar continues to move along, even in these times.  Birthdays happen, holidays happen.  Spring's flowers and veggies come up after a warm rain.  The daily essentials of life still exist.

So I still had a Seder.  You can't cancel a religious holiday, you just have to rearrange how you observe it.  It was way worse during the Holocaust.  We need to get over the minor inconveniences that keep us from catching the virus and embrace the fact that they keep us alive.  I just wish I'd figured that out before buying a 3lb brisket.

I had a single person over, someone who did not have access to a family Virtual Seder.  I got out a measuring tape and set the table so we could be six feet apart.  While I did set the actual Seder plate, each of us had a mini plate so we wouldn't have to pass dishes.  We served ourselves in the kitchen and brought it to the table.

I discovered that it's just as much work to make a four-course Seder for two as for a dozen.  Just fewer dishes to do after the guests leave.  My guest has already volunteered to host next year, with me coaching.  If I can bake a wedding cake in an apartment three times zones from my house, I think I can manage assisting a Seder in the next neighborhood.

I also took the opportunity to take some photos I wish I had put on the original posts for the repeat recipes.

Spaghetti Squash and Quinoa Soup
Cranberry Brisket

Ginger-Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Potato Latkes

Vegan Cardamom Ice Cream
Chocolate Chip Passover Biscotti

Potato Nachos

I did mention buying a 10-lb bag of potatoes, right?  I'm looking everywhere for ideas.  As long as I have two left for latkes, the rest are for playing.

Granted, these are just regular nachos with the extra step of cooking potatoes.  One website called them Irish Nachos.  I thought that was really cute, if a little non-PC.  The Irish have had to put up with so many derogatory names over the centuries, I thought I'd spare them this.

You're really supposed to make these in a big batch in a cast-iron skillet as a game-day appetizer.  Forget that; I'm eating this half-batch over four days as a main dish, broiling each serving in an omelet pan.  I've been losing weight, only eating my own healthy cooking.  I suspect we're going to see two weight extremes once everyone is allowed to go back to their old routines.  First will be the people who sat around and snacked all day out of boredom, gaining weight.  The others will be like me, who didn't buy snacks on purpose and stopped buying fast food to save money.  They're going to lose more weight than they expected.

*4 small to medium potatoes (about 1-1/2 lbs)
Vegetable oil
1 15 oz can black beans or 2/3 C dry, cooked
1 C shredded Mexican blend cheese
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
*2 green onions, finely chopped
other toppings such as olives, avocado, jalapeños, sour cream, cilantro, etc.

1.  If making the beans from dry, soak at least 4 hours, drain, and simmer for 2 hours.  Drain again.  For canned, drain and rinse.

2.  Preheat oven to 400º.  Scrub potatoes.  Leaving skin on, slice 1/4" thick crosswise.  Toss in 2 Tb oil, coating all pieces well to avoid sticking.  Arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and flip all the pieces.  Bake another 20 minutes, until browned and slightly crispy but not hard.

3.  Change oven setting to broiler.  Grease a large oven-safe skillet or shallow casserole with oil to coat, unless you have one of those cool Copper pans that nothing sticks to.  Arrange potato slices on bottom.  Top with most of the cheese, then black beans (opposite of the photo above).

4.  Broil until the cheese melts, about 3 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Add remaining toppings and cheese.  Serve immediately.

Difficulty Rating  :)

Chickpea and Potato Cabbage Rolls

I was very surprised that a google search did not bring up a recipe for these immediately.  There are a few that are similar, but not with potato in the roll.

These actually came about because the market was out of both dry and canned white beans, so I couldn't make baked beans.  Stupid hoarders.  I just wanted a cup.  They did have canned garbanzo beans and fresh cabbage, plus the other items that eventually made their way into this dish.  I already had way too many potatoes, so I decided to make that the starchy filling instead of rice.

For leafy greens, I used the tops off the radishes I pulled for the kimchi.  In these times, remember that any vegetable you buy that comes with greens attached, those are edible.  Even the leafy tops of carrots, which can be chopped up as herbs or put in salads.  It's why you never find rhubarb or potatoes with the leaves attached; those are poisonous.  Beet greens are especially good and taste a lot like mature spinach.

Because I was working from cans, this recipe did make a lot more filling than I needed for 12 rolls (4 servings).  You could keep going and make about 6 to 8 more.  I froze it for later and turned it into soup with the lamb shank for the Seder plate and a roll on the side.  That stretched it three more meals.

*12 large leaves of savoy cabbage
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
*1/2 lb russet potatoes, 1/2" dice
2 Tb olive oil
*1 bunch leafy greens
1/2 C diced yellow onion
1 rib celery, diced
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper

1.  Drizzle oil in a large skillet and heat over medium.  Add diced onion and celery and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add diced potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Cook until browned and starting to soften.  Chop leafy greens and add to skillet until wilted.  Add drained beans.

2.  Preheat oven to 375º and start boiling a pot of water.  Blanch cabbage leaves until soft.  Sorry, you're going to have half a head of cabbage left.  I made sauerkraut.  You could do coleslaw or any other cabbage recipe that doesn't require large leaves.

3.  Spoon mixture into softened leaves and roll up, burrito style.  Arrange in a 9"x13" casserole.  Pour canned tomatoes without draining on top.  Bake 20 minutes, to heat everything evenly.

Difficulty rating  :)

Kimchi

Here's something else I've never had because I'm allergic to commercial versions.  "Korean sauerkraut" has a red chili paste in it that would make me break out in hives at best, and have an asthma attack at worst.  Making it myself, I used as little chili flakes as I could to impart flavor without hitting my limit of the natural chemicals that make me break out.

This is a fermented condiment.  It takes a little time and attention.  With everyone trying not to go out, this makes a nice little hobby.  Ok, it's only five days, but we all have too much time on our hands right now.  If you ever wanted to do sourdough but feared you'd forget the starter in the back of the fridge, now is a good time for that too.  I don't like sourdough, so we're here with kimchi.

The recipe I'm following from the kitchn has a vegetarian variation that works around the shrimp paste and/or fish sauce.  I wanted this KLP, which meant I couldn't use either.  I couldn't find the kelp powder and went with the plain water version.  No umami hit, but I didn't know if it was safe to use the soaking water from dried mushrooms, which is a go-to for that kind of thing.  Also, I didn't want to end up with more leftover daikon radish.  I pulled the rest of my good-sized red radishes in the Pond and made up the rest of the weight in thinly sliced carrot.

I think I found out why my sauerkraut didn't bubble as much as it should have while fermenting.  It was a mix of the chlorine traces in tap water and anti-caking agents in kosher salt.  Iodized salt will also inhibit probiotic growth.  Using filtered, purified, or previously boiled tap water takes care of the chlorine problem.  I'm almost out of the salt with anti-caking agents, so after starting this I bought a box of kosher salt without iodine or anti-caking agents.  It also happened to be the last box of kosher salt in the store.  Guess hoarders started in on that once the table salt ran out.  This kimchi did ferment, just not as bubbly or as fast as it should have.

The hoarders wiped out the fresh garlic and ginger.  I'm not sure about garlic, but I recently found out you can freeze ginger root.  The more I've been cooking Indian and other South Asian foods, the more I've been looking for options other than peeling and grating ginger.  I found this bottle of squeezable ginger and decided to give it a try.  The last of my fresh garlic went into this kimchi, so it could bring natural probiotics to the party, and I'll save the jar for another time if a new head of garlic is still unavailable.

1 Napa cabbage (about 2 lbs)
1/4 C kosher salt: non-iodized, no anti-caking agents if you can find it
filtered or purified water
1 Tb grated garlic
1 tsp peeled, grated ginger
1 tsp sugar
2 Tb fish sauce, salted shrimp paste, or kelp powder; or 3 Tb filtered water
1-5 Tb red chili flakes, to taste (gochugaru if you can find it)
8 oz daikon radish, peeled and cut in matchsticks
4 green onions, cut in 1" pieces

1.  Wash your hands very well, especially under the fingernails.  Slice cabbage longways into quarters and remove the core.  Chop into 2" pieces.  Sprinkle with salt and knead to distribute.  The fibers will start to break down.  Add water to cover, then weigh down to submerge pieces with a plate and something to keep it from floating.  Allow to sit about 2 hours.

2.  Rinse leaves in a colander very well and let sit to drain while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Chop radish into matchsticks and onions into 1" pieces.  In the bowl you used to soak the cabbage, combine garlic, ginger, sugar, and fish sauce or whatever you're using.  Stir in chili flakes.

3.  Squeeze the cabbage dry and add to the bowl with remaining vegetables.  Either wear food handling gloves or wash your hands every 30 seconds as you knead the sauce into the vegetables.  That's to avoid chemical irritation to your skin from the chili.

4.  Wash a 1-quart container (or a couple of pint jars) very well with hot water and soap, even if you think it's clean.  You need to get rid of any natural yeasts or bacteria it might have picked up in the cabinet that normally don't make a difference for just housing leftovers.  Pack the kimchi tightly into the container and pour any water from the bowl on top.  Press down so the juices cover the vegetables, leaving a 1" headspace.  Seal the jar and place on a plate or something to catch any overflow if the fermentation gets too bubbly.

5.  Place in a cool place away from light.  Check on the kimchi daily, stirring it a little and pressing down to keep the vegetables submerged.  This will also allow excess gases to escape and prevent bad things from growing.  If the top looks moldy or scummy, skim off those pieces.

6.  Starting about the third day, taste a piece to see if it's done.  Once it is strong enough for your liking (3-5 days), transfer the container to the fridge, where it can hang out for up to a couple of months.  Use as a condiment on rice, eggs, toast, potatoes, fish, or pretty much anything.

Makes about 1 quart

Difficulty rating  :)