Buckwheat Apple Pancakes

I might break down early and buy some kind of bread product before the matzoh is gone.  There's so much of it.  It's unreasonable to make a single person go through a case, but none of my markets sell single boxes.

With English muffins off the grocery list, I made pancakes.  Still trying to be moderately healthy, so I went for buckwheat with a few added ingredients.  It meant getting out the food processor before the sun came up, which was annoying.  Not as annoying as peeling an apple at that hour.  It reminded me why I never do it.  Managed to finish without bleeding.  There's no bleeding in pancakes.

3/4 C AP flour
1/2 C buckwheat flour
2 Tb sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1-1/3 C buttermilk
2 Tb oil, plus more for pan
1 large apple (I used Gala)

1.  Sift together flour, buckwheat flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt.  Separately, combine beaten egg buttermilk, and 2 Tb oil.

2.  Peel and core apple.  Grate or run through the food processor's shredding blade.  Add wet to dry ingredients, then stir in apple shreds.  Combine just until moistened, then allow to sit 10 minutes.

3.  Preheat griddle or skillet over medium.  Lightly grease with oil.  Add batter to make pancakes of desired size.  I tend to do about 2-3 Tablespoons and get 5 pancakes at a time.  1/4 C will get you a 4" pancake.

4.  Cook until bubbles stop popping and edges are set, about 4 minutes for the first set and a minute less after the pan is a better temperature.  Flip and cook another 2 minutes.  With buckwheat, it's hard to see when they're done by color, but mine did get a light gold.  Remove to a plate to keep warm, re-oil skillet, and go at it again until batter is gone.

5.  Serve hot with syrup, or apple compote if you're feeling really like you want apples.

Makes about 20 3" pancakes

Difficulty rating  :)

Birthday Splurge

I don't usually do much for my birthday.  I think the last actual "party" I had was my 16th.  There have been dinners out, including one surprise thrown by a roommate, but nothing I would call a full party.

Still no party this year, for pandemic reasons, but I felt I had earned the right to splurge on myself a bit.  I survived 2020 in general, a bout of Covid-19, got vaccinated, and managed not to lose my job in an industry that has been decimated.  That is all cause for celebration even without a birthday.

So I started to accumulate the set of china I've always wanted, Royal Albert's Lavender Rose.  I fell in love with it in the 80s and was very disappointed when it was discontinued.  The more popular Old Country Roses is still easy to find.  I looked periodically on Replacements Limited, but everything on that site is very expensive.  Years ago, I passed up a set at an antique store because it sounded pricey at the time.  Never should have done that.

This year, it finally occurred to me to look for it on EBay.  Still not cheap, and you mainly find stray pieces, but I could piece together a set for eight over a few years.

The day I decided to get out the credit card, I found one listing for multiple 5-piece sets.  Even one was a reasonable price, and they got cheaper if you bought multiples.  Plus, free shipping from someone in Buffalo whose shop deals primarily in china and other breakables.  I took the plunge and bought their remaining four sets.  They probably barely broke even, but they set the price.  I didn't haggle.  There was a different listing for a full 12-setting set, including serving pieces, for a very good price, but I would have had to drive to Arizona to get it.  Not that obsessed.

A week later, the box arrived.  I very carefully unwrapped each piece, checked for damage, washed it, and put it in the china cabinet on the shelves set aside for that set.  In one blow, I'm halfway to having my English bone china set.  I'll also pick up bowls, stray platters, and such once the basic set is complete.  It's going to be great for smaller tea parties and other spring/summer gatherings.

I'm using my grandmothers's silver flatware with it instead of the gold-plated, even though the rims are gold.  I don't know why, but I always pictured using silver flatware with it.  And the punctuation wasn't a mistake; both of my grandmothers coincidentally bought the same silver pattern years before meeting.  I have eight full sets, plus extras for dessert and an uncommon number of soup spoons.  Not sure how that happened when we divvied it up.  Celebrated the unboxing by picking up a Mediterranean vegetarian plate.

From my brother, I asked for a proper water bath canner and some Clearjel, so I can start making my own pie fillings.  Guess I'll have to peel more fruit.  Now that I have a pot deep enough for pints and quarts, this summer will be full of canning projects.  I have a list.

For the actual day, I had just gotten my second Pfizer shot, so that was a gift in itself.  Felt like I had a bullet in my arm and developed a low fever, but I'll put up with two days of that to return to a semi-normal life.  Made myself a stir-fry with about a pound of peas from the back yard and a Banana-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting, because why not?!

Cilantro Ranch Dressing

All of my winter plantings decided to bolt within a few weeks of each other.  First to go was the cilantro, as usual.  I don't mind that as much, since I save the seeds for coriander.  The lettuce and arugula were annoying.  I hardly got any leaves out of the arugula this year.  Even the dwarf kale decided it had had enough after a year.

So, salad.  Several salads.  And one fell during Passover, when commercial dressings are rare and expensive.  I did have all the ingredients for Ranch in KLP form, and decided to make it with cilantro as the primary herb.

Most of the recipes for cilantro ranch that I read were Mexican-themed with lime and jalapeños.  There's nothing wrong with that, but I was in the mood for something more Mediterranean flavored.  I chose lemon and mint as the counterpoints, with a faint touch of cumin for tang.  I was leaning toward a cilantro-infused tzatziki flavor.

1/2 C mayonnaise
1/4 C sour cream or plain yogurt
1/4 C buttermilk
*1/2 C cilantro leaves
* 2 Tb fresh mint leaves
1/4 C fresh parsley or 1 Tb parsley flakes
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/8 tsp cumin
1 Tb lemon juice
2 tsp dry onion flakes or 2 Tb fresh green onion

1.  Place all ingredients in the food processor.  Run until fully incorporated.  Because I was using powdered buttermilk, I mixed it up first and added the water after as a thinning agent.

2.  Chill until ready to use.  This dressing will firm up in the fridge, so don't worry if it seems watery.  It will also taste better if the flavors are allowed to meld for a day.

Makes 1 cup

Difficulty rating  π

Colcannon

I bought another 5 lb bag of potatoes.  It was the same price as 2 lbs of loose russets.

The evening before, Alton Brown had attempted to make colcannon for the anniversary show of Quarantine Quitchen.  He didn't pre-cook the potatoes, so the whole thing ran long and the potatoes never did get done.  You know a cooking livestream is a disaster when the hosts start going through the fridge looking for leftovers.

Colcannon is Irish for butter with mashed potatoes and greens.  Nearly a whole stick of butter by the time you do garnish.  My cholesterol was kind of high at the last test, so I probably shouldn't be having this.  There's kale in it, half of it homegrown and the rest store-bought organic.  Most people think of colcannon as a cabbage dish, but kale is more traditional.  Kale-cannon.

I used the last of a bunch of green onions on the day because they were about to turn, but a leek would be an excellent choice for the onion.  You're going for a subtle tang, not an oniony taste.  Leeks or green onions will do that for you.

I'm loosely following a Simply Recipes post and just lightening it up a bit.  2% instead of cream, less butter, less salt.  It was still incredibly rich.

*4 medium Russet potatoes (about 2 to 2-1/2 lbs)
4 Tb unsalted butter, plus another Tb for garnish
*3 C lightly packed, chopped kale leaves
*1/2 C finely chopped green onion or leek
2/3 C milk
kosher salt

1.  Peel potatoes, cut into chunks, and place in a large pot with water to cover.  I kind of went for a "rustic" peeling.  This isn't vichyssoise; a few bits of skin won't hurt anybody.  Add about 1 Tb of salt to the water and bring to a boil.  Simmer until fork-tender, about 20 minutes.  Drain into a colander.

2.  Put the pot back on the stove over medium and melt the butter in it.  Add kale and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes.  Lacinato kale cooks faster than the curly stuff I grow.  Add onion and cook until softened, another couple of minutes.

3.  If you have a potato masher, add potatoes and milk to the pot at this point and mash them together.  I don't have one, and put the potatoes and milk into the stand mixer with the paddle.  This got them a lot smoother than I could have done by hand.  You could put the potatoes through a ricer or food mill as well.

4.  Stir together potato mash and greens.  Taste and add salt as needed.  Serve hot, with a knob of butter in the middle melting and making the dish more decadent.

Difficulty rating  :)

Spring Garden

Thanks to having nothing to do during January except cook and clean, I haven't had space in this blog for gardening posts.  Took me until Passover to publish the backlog, then there were all the Passover recipes themselves.

Gardening has been happening this whole time.  Lettuces, arugula, kale, and peas were my winter veggies.  Less successful was the attempt at spinach and beets.  Bugs got the shoots.  The arugula and lettuce bolted a month ago, so there was a lot of salad, and my dwarf kale is threatening the same.  I put the peas on some peanut butter pasta, and kept snacking on the ripe ones before Passover started, to clear the vines until after the no-legume holiday was done.

I decided to start eggplant from seed this year.  I skipped nightshades in 2020, so the bugs could leave the neighborhood.  To Molly's chagrin, I decided to rip out the catnip pots and change them into homes for the eggplants.  One extra seedling is going into the planter that I had hoped to keep open for pumpkin in a couple of months.  It's a big enough planter that I can use another area.

It's time to harden off the seedlings.  They aren't happy with me about that, but haven't died yet.  I'm checking the artichokes every few days, looking for the stalks.  The original Artie is starting to get a bud, but nothing from the other two plants yet.  The boysenberry should also start flowering soon.  This winter was cool but dry, so I'm not sure how that's going to affect the perennials.  One more learning curve in my gardening education.

Bacon and Lentil Soup

This was part of the pre-Passover clear-out.  I just didn't want to post two soups in a row.  On the kill list was half a pound of bacon, 2/3 C brown lentils, and less than a cup of Israeli couscous.  The last of the lamb broth from the risotto and some mirepoix turned them into soup.  Not super creative, but I really liked it.

While I was putting this together, I realized that focusing on the flavor combinations of a certain cuisine makes the whole recipe easier to manage.  American soups use one set of flavors.  Indian curry is another. Soups and stews from all over the world have their own specific set of spices and herbs.  I was going for American comfort food for this one, which is what I consider "basic" because it's what I was raised on.  Someone from another part of the world might see the same ingredients and think of them as a novel recipe.  It all depends on your life experience.

* 8 oz bacon
*2/3 C brown lentils
*1 C diced yellow onion
2 ribs celery, diced
2 medium carrots, sliced in rounds
*1 qt chicken or vegetable stock
*1/4 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
*1 C dry Israeli couscous

1.  In a large soup pot, cook bacon over medium heat.  You only need to get it to the safe level if you want it to stay soft, about 10 minutes.  I went halfway to crispy because it was really fatty and I decided to render out some of it.  Remove bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain, then chop into bite sized pieces.  Pour off all but 2 Tb of the fat.  I save it for greasing omelet pans.

2.  While the bacon is cooking, start the lentils in a separate pot.  Sort the dry lentils, looking for stones or shriveled seeds.  Fill pot with water to cover by 2".  Bring to a low boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, until lentils are split.  Drain.

3.  Return soup pot to the heat.  Add onion and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add coriander, thyme, stock, bacon, and carrots.  Bring to a simmer, then add cooked lentils and dry couscous.  Cook until carrots are tender and couscous is done, about 10-12 minutes.  Taste, then add salt and pepper as needed.  Normally, you would add them earlier in the process, but your bacon probably contains both and will provide it to the pot as it simmers.  Serve hot.

Difficulty rating  :)

Beef Breakfast Sausage

Ground beef was on sale for $1.97 per pound, but you had to buy at least three pounds.  There was no ground meat in my freezer, so I decided to take the plunge.

Let's be honest, these sausage patties are an excuse to eat burgers for breakfast.  Well, I did make all that ketchup.

I ate a lot of meat this Passover, if you include fish.  Still not sure why kosher rules don't count it as meat.  It bothered me more than usual that the only protein-rich grain I could have was quinoa.  And that sneaks in under the technicality that it was unknown in Europe a millennium ago, when the rules were finalized.  I really feel for vegetarians and vegans during this time, especially vegans.  At least vegetarians can get by with cheese and eggs for protein and iron.  I ate a lot of cashews.

That said, these patties are freezable for later, both raw and cooked.  And you don't have to cook them as patties.  If you prefer your breakfast sausage in crumbles, it's perfectly fine to cook this in that way.  The only difference between sausage and other forms of ground meat is the flavorings that are used.  One expects breakfast sausage to taste a certain way, which is usually different than a hamburger, kefta, or other ways to flavor ground meat.  Sausage has a lot of herbs and spices, usually with something like chili to give it a bit of a kick.  I went easy on the pepper flakes, but you can go as spicy as you like.

1 lb ground beef (lean is fine)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tb olive oil

1.  In a medium bowl, knead together beef, herbs, and spices until uniform.  Chill 1 hour, to let the flavors meld.  Ignore that my meat looks brown.  It had been out of the freezer one day longer than expected and had oxidized a bit.  Perfectly safe, and yes it was still raw.

2.  Heat oil in a rimmed skillet over medium-high heat.  Form meat into 4 or 8 patties, or place in the pan as crumbles.  For patties, make them thin.  Meat seizes up as it cooks, and you don't want to end up with sausage meatballs.  Unless you do.

3.  Cook until 165º in the center of the patties, flipping once after about 5 minutes.  Remember, this is still ground meat and needs to be cooked through to be safe.  Serve hot as part of breakfast, or cool and refrigerate or freeze for another day.  Raw patties can also be frozen and defrosted to cook fresh.

Difficulty rating  π

Carrot Cake Macaroons

I try not to buy KLP convenience foods.  They're expensive and don't generally taste great.  Mainly, they're nice for people who aren't sure of all the rules and want a safe shortcut.

All of the kosher brands have developed really interesting flavors of macaroons in recent years.  I'm just not spending $5 a can on them, especially when the ingredients are only $2 and mostly already in my pantry.  I did have to buy the coconut because I had used the last of my older bag on some matzoh granola.  But I would have bought some eventually anyway.

Most of the best-reviewed recipes online are versions of the one by Betty Crocker.  I'm cutting that in half and making a few tweaks.

2 egg whites (boxed ok, but won't whip as fluffy)
1 Tb sugar
1 Tb brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used KLP cinnamon extract)
1-1/2 C sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 C grated carrot
*2 Tb crushed walnuts

1.  Preheat oven to 350º and line a baking sheet with parchment or baking mat.

2.  Beat egg whites until foamy.  Add sugar, spices, and extract and beat to soft peaks that are a funky brown color from the spices and brown sugar.  I used boxed egg whites, so they never quite got to soft peaks, but that's fine for this.  We're making macaroons, not macarons.  That one-letter difference creates a vastly different cookie.

3.  Fold in coconut, shredded carrot, and walnuts.  Form into heaping-tablespoon balls and place on prepared sheet.  These will not spread out.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned on the outside and chewy on the inside.

4.  Allow to sit on the baking sheet until mostly cooled, or they will fall apart when you move them.  Carefully move to a rack to cool the rest of the way before storing.  Keep in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze and defrost as needed.

Makes about 15

Difficulty rating  :)  (because grating the carrot or running it through the food processor is really a step in itself)

Charoses-Stuffed Cornish Hens

This is what happens when I'm making Seder for just myself.  No worries about someone else not liking it.  I can try something weird that comes to me as I'm driving home from work.

I'm usually wary about stuffing poultry.  I would never stuff a turkey, and only loosely fill a chicken with aromatics like onion and celery.  But Cornish hens are so small, and I was not planning to pack the cavity tightly.  The goal was to cook the apples halfway and get everything to a safe temperature without drying out the meat.

This did help me to meet my goal of finishing the first box of matzoh before Passover started.  It's hard for one person to go through the five-pack.  I decided on a head start, while I could still break up the monotony with real bread.

4 Cornish hens (1 lb each)
1 Gala or Fuji apple, cored and finely diced (peeling optional)
*2 Tb chopped walnuts
cinnamon to taste
2 Tb sweet red wine or grape juice
1/4 C diced onion
*1/4 C diced celery
*1/2 sheet matzoh, crumbled
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp dried sage
olive oil

1.  In a medium bowl, combine diced apple, walnuts, onion, celery, and matzoh.  Season with salt and pepper to taste, about 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and the sage.  Sprinkle wine over all of the stuffing and toss one more time.

2.  Unwrap hens and open the cavity.  I rinsed mine to make sure they were fully defrosted.  Set up a roasting pan with a rack in it, two pans if needed.  Start preheating the oven to 350º.

3.  Fill each bird's cavity with about 1/2 C of the filling, or whatever it will hold without packing in tightly.  I had guessed the amount wrong and ended up with side ramekins of stuffing.  That's a perfectly acceptable way to bake it if you don't want to stuff the birds, just add water or broth to the cups if you bake it separately.

4.  Truss the legs shut, and the wings too if you're concerned about them splaying.  Rub the outer skin with oil and place breast side up in the roasting pan.  Sprinkle with more salt and pepper, and additional cinnamon if you want an extra punch.  Roast for 1 hour, or until a thermometer reaches 165º.  I'll be honest, I didn't temp mine.  After an hour, we were starting the Seder, so I turned down the oven to 140º and let them hold for an hour.  They didn't dry out and I didn't get sick, so I'm calling it a success.  Remove ties before serving.

Difficulty rating  :)

Zoom Passover

Last year, at the start of the pandemic, I had one guest for Seder and we sat at opposite sides of the large dining table.  Each of us had a little setup so we wouldn't have to share items from the large Seder plate.

This year, I'm lucky enough to be half-vaccinated.  Second Pfizer shot on the 5th.  Which means I won't be socializing - even masked - until the 19th.  So, I let my usual invites know that I wouldn't be hosting.

Instead, I Zoomed in to Techie, Writer, and Melody Smurf's Seder.  Techie and Writer are in Philadelphia, Melody and her roommate are at NYU, and I'm in L.A.  We started on their time, and finished while it was still light out here.  Writer Smurf noticed the time difference when I had to go looking for a better wifi connection and she saw the sun out the window.

Zoom isn't a perfect solution.  Writer had to send me a pdf of their Haggadah, which was blurry in a lot of places.  It cut off halfway through, as did Melody's, so there was a flurry of new photos and emails.  My laptop's camera didn't come on the first time I logged in, so I had to reboot the whole computer.  Sometime after dinner, my connection dropped for a minute and I had to be let back in.  We were all pretty tired from the stress by the time the service was over.

Meanwhile, it's weird to have a large Seder plate to yourself.  I still got it out and set it up.  I got all the usual items prepared.  And then I ate off it whenever we got to that part of the service.  I did pour Elijah a separate cup of wine.

The biggest change from a normal Seder was no last minute scramble for the afikomen prize.  Not much of a hunt when there's only one person in the house.  I could have put a bit of tuna on it and had Molly find it, but that's kind of silly.

Menu

Required Elements

• Charoses
• Hard boiled egg
• Spring greens (home-grown cilantro instead of store-bought parsley)
• Horseradish
• Salt water
• Matzoh

Meal

• Gefilte Fish (from a jar, since I wasn't showing off)
• Roast Potato Wedges
• Steamed Asparagus
• Charoses-Stuffed Cornish Hens
• Almond-Lemon Torte