Cauliflower and Pumpkin Curry

Here's something for a chilly winter evening.  Hot like a soup, just a tad spicy, with the warmth of pumpkin and the heft of coconut milk.  I had it over rice and lentils, originally for protein, but will now be a post coming soon because it got kind of elaborate.  If not on a vegetarian rotation, some shredded chicken would make a nice addition.

I got out a baggie of puréed roasted pumpkin that I had frozen in November when the market was giving away all their pumpkins after Halloween.  The pie pumpkins shouldn't have been free, but the register insisted they were and the checker said I could have them.  Ok.  I'm going to assume you're using canned and actually measured what I put in.

I chose to use a fresh cauliflower for texture.  Frozen will take about ten minutes less to cook, since it has already been blanched.  Also, you don't have to cut it up.  I don't know why I never thought of it before, but I tore off a bunch of unnecessary leaves at the market before bagging it.  It's sold by weight, and I'm not planning to eat the trimmings.  Felt a bit guilty, but I have seen worse behavior in the market.

2 Tb olive oil
1 C diced yellow onion
*2 ribs celery, diced
*2 Tb tomato paste
1/2 tsp each salt, *coriander seed, and *cumin seed
1/4 tsp each pepper and *celery seed
2 tsp curry powder
*2 cloves garlic, minced
*1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
*1 C pumpkin purée
1 can coconut milk (lite ok)
1 head cauliflower, cut in florets, or 4 C frozen florets, thawed
*Juice of 1 lemon

1.  In a large skillet with a lid, heat the oil over medium-high.  Add diced onion and celery and cook until starting to soften, about 5 minutes.

2.  Add tomato paste and spices and cook into a fragrant paste, another 3 minutes.  Stir in garlic and ginger.

3.  Add coconut milk and pumpkin to skillet and bring to a simmer.  Add cauliflower florets and stir to coat.  Lower heat to medium low, cover, and boil curry gently until cauliflower reaches desired doneness, about 10 minutes with frozen and 15-20 for fresh.  Stir in lemon juice to finish.

4.  Serve hot over rice or with a side of bread.

Difficulty rating  π

Bulk Prepping Ginger

I have been in love with squeezable ginger paste since the pandemic started and that was the only ginger left in the market.  Still, there are some recipes that really should be done with fresh ginger.  It was only $1.99 a pound at 99 Ranch, so I bought a bag.  Minus the two tablespoons I actually needed, that's a lot of ginger in the fridge.

Becky at Acre Homestead on YouTube started doing this with garlic first.  When you grow over a hundred heads of garlic per year, you have to figure out how to preserve it.  She ran the peeled cloves through the processor, froze them in scooped pucks, and transferred them to a baggie for long term storage.  This past year, she tried it with ginger and it seemed to work.  I couldn't find the exact video; she posts every other day.  And I thought every third day was a lot!

When you grate ginger for a recipe, the tough fibers break down and leave the juicy pulp.  That's what the squeezable ginger is, plus some flavoring and preservatives.  My idea was to run the peeled ginger through the mini processor with a bit of lemon juice for preservative.  The squeeze bottle includes fructose, but I don't have any corn syrup at the moment.  I could have used honey, but these were going in the freezer, not the fridge, and didn't need it.  Besides, I mostly use fresh ginger in savory recipes.

I chose to portion the pulp as generous teaspoons because that's the kind of measurement I tend to work with.  If I generally used tablespoons, I would have put it in sandwich baggies and pressed it into 16 cells, like I do with leftover tomato paste.  That would have been faster, and it's great with the tomato paste to break off a scored chunk whenever I need it.  Another option is to freeze it in ice cube trays, but those would have been huge.

Peeling the ginger took the longest of the whole process.  I tried the spoon method for the first time, and it was about the same effort as a peeler.  Chop peeled pieces into manageable chunks and chuck in processor with a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice.  Cover ears and run the processor until you get a chunky paste.  Then you scoop the pulp into desired portions on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet and freeze until firm, an hour or two.  Pop the pucks into a baggie and store in the freezer until needed.  Half an hour of work, plus dishes, for possibly a year of ginger.

Omelet Muffins

I've been wanting silicone muffin cups for several months, just to make these.  I wasn't seeing what I wanted at Michaels, though they did have one mold that makes 3-tier cupcakes that look like mini wedding cakes.  Then I found a six-cupcake one at the 99¢ Store for $2.  Sold.

While these make excellent pieces for a brunch buffet, my intent was for meal prep.  Some mornings, I would rather stay in bed ten more minutes than get up to make a hot breakfast.  Once baked, these can be popped out and frozen, then nuked as needed.  That was the point behind the silicone molds.

Like a quiche, you can put whatever you want in them.  I had some latkes left in the freezer from Christmas, so they went on the bottom.  You could use cooked hash browns.  Or not, if you aren't a hash brown person.  I added some cheddar and a little bit of veggies I scrounged up.  You could do sausage or bacon.  This is very much a build your own thing.

Does it work in a regular muffin pan?  I'm not brave enough to find out.  You would have to grease the heck out of it.  There's a reason quiches have a crust.

4 eggs
1/2 C milk
*about 1 C of fillings like sausage, potatoes, cheese, veggies, etc. Meat and potatoes should be pre-cooked
salt and pepper to taste

1.  Preheat oven to 325º and get out a 6-count silicone muffin pan.  Whisk together eggs, milk, and a little salt and pepper.  I also added paprika.  Set aside.

2.  Evenly distribute fillings between the 6 muffin cups.  If you have an ingredient that tends to be greasy, like sausage or fried potatoes, put that at the bottom to help release.

3.  Pour egg mixture into muffin cups, trying to get all filled the same amount.  It helps to jiggle them a little, to settle out any air pockets.

4.  Bake about 30 minutes, until eggs are set.  Cool 15 minutes in the pan, then turn out to cool completely.  Don't worry if they deflate a bit or shrink up.  Eggs do that as they cool.

5.  Serve warm or cold.  If freezing, refrigerate before wrapping in plastic and sealing in a baggie or container.

Makes 6, or 3-4 servings

Difficulty rating  π

Saucing it Up

Still not doing an actual Pantry Challenge.  I just got tired of all the million jars and baggies cluttering up the kitchen freezer.  I decided to do a basic ground turkey and pasta, then add whatever sauce to it I dug up, a different one each evening, until the pasta part was gone.

I'm not sure this even counts as a recipe.  I cooked up whatever onion ends I had in the fridge and an eggplant, because why not, in the skillet before adding the ground turkey.  Once the pasta was done, I drained and added that.  Then, once a portion was on the plate, I covered it with some leftover spaghetti sauce.  Half hour dinner, check.

The next night, I reheated some of it with sweet and sour sauce.  Very different taste, but still good.  And the broccoli on both those nights was the first head from my garden.

There wasn't enough pasta sauce left for a full serving, so I used a dollop of pesto to round it out.  I need to do that more often.  Veggies courtesy of my freezer collection.

And the last night, I felt like a peanut sauce with some of my new batch of kimchi.  And completely forgot to take a photo of it.  There was just a bit left over still, so it became lunch the next day with some BBQ sauce.

If you start with something neutral, you can turn leftovers into a completely different flavor profile.  Yes, it was still ground turkey and pasta, but a little effort turned the leftovers into something new.  This can help a lot when batch cooking for someone who doesn't approve of the concept of leftovers.  Plus, there's a lot more room in my kitchen freezer now.

Tamale Cake

I tried really hard to find what I wanted for this recipe.  The closest was building a tamale pie in a Bundt pan.

The goal here was a tamale without all the busy work.  This is something you can slice and serve, with all the flavors of a wrapped tamale.  Except the corn husk.  Those got really expensive this season, for something that gets thrown away.  I almost bought an ear of corn just to shuck it.

All you need to do for this version is make the masa and the filling, pour them both into the vessel of choice, and allow to steam as you would for a wrapped tamale.

The filling ingredients are what I made, a bean and cheese for vegetarian night.  Feel free to use your favorite filling.

1/4 C butter
*1 C masa harina flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp each cumin and chili powder
About *1 C vegetable or chicken stock
1 C-ish mashed pinto beans
2-3 Tb each green onions and cilantro leaves
1/4 C shredded cheese

1.  In a mixer with the paddle, whip butter until smooth.

2.  In a separate bowl, stir together masa, baking powder, and spices.  Add broth and stir into a soft batter. If too stiff to spread easily, add more broth.  Spoon into mixer and beat with butter until combined, scraping the sides a couple of times.

3.  Here's where things got experimental.  Line your steaming basket with cheesecloth.  Don't have one?  I used a mesh strainer that fits neatly in one of my saucepans.  I actually lined it with the muslin cloth I use for cheese-making.  You can absolutely use corn husks if that is something you keep around.

4.  Spoon about half of the masa into the bottom of the steamer.  Spread out until it comes partway up the sides.  Layer in the onions, cilantro, beans, and cheese.  Top with remaining masa, bearing in mind this whole thing is going to be flipped over and the top will be the bottom.  Cover with the overhang of the cloth/leaves.

5.  Set basket over water in a pot, not touching, and cover.  Bring to a low boil and steam for 90 minutes, checking water level every half hour.  Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes before unwrapping.  When cake appears stable, turn out onto serving plate and remove remaining cloth/leaves.  Once it stops steaming, slice and serve, perhaps with a salad, salsa, and sour cream.

Difficulty rating  :-0

Winter Greens

I don't know how it took me so long to realize that winter is my favorite gardening season.  There aren't the flashy colors of summer, unless you count the citrus, but cool-weather crops are so much easier to grow.  The bugs largely go dormant in the chilly weather, and rain is the most efficient way to water crops.

The white baskets are a trick I learned from Team Benson's Desert Garden on YouTube.  They keep the evil white butterflies from laying eggs on newly planted seedlings.  Once they're stronger, I'll take off the cages.

Yes, I know this doesn't work for everyone.  Even some deserts get hard freezes.  Our coldest night this winter appears to be in the upper 30s, well above freezing and perfectly safe for established plants.

The first broccoli I transplanted has gotten its first head.  Not huge, but two servings is better than nothing, and all its side shoots should take off fairly soon.  Kale and celery are doing very well.  I had to buy green onions, so I planted the roots to go to seed in a few months.

None of the eggplant have died yet, which is a win.  They aren't thriving, but at least there's hope.  Only one garlic has come up.  I'll give it until March, since they really aren't supposed to come up until after winter.

Aside from arugula, the lettuces have been a bust.  Something keeps nibbling on my watercress, and the romaine never germinated.  The only cilantro is one I didn't even plant.  No idea where the seed came from.  But there are a couple of fennel that self-seeded when I pulled out last year's plants.  I had to get more pea seeds, so they only just went in yesterday.  I decided to try my hand at Swiss chard while I was at it, and seeded another round of radishes.  Hopefully, something will start to come up next weekend.

Cheddar Biscuits

Well, I needed something to go with the soup.  Looking for a basic cheddar biscuit recipe, I found the one on SumOfYum.  It has been decades since I've been to Red Lobster, but these are supposed to be like the ones there.  Actually, I think I went there for dinner after seeing Forrest Gump, so yeah, it's been awhile.

One cool thing about the site where I found these, she has a portion calculator.  Scaling this down to four biscuits left 1/3 tsp or less of a lot of minor ingredients, so I'm doing this as half.  If you make them right, there won't be leftovers anyway.  Someone will volunteer to eat the extras.  I used the 3 Tb cookie scoop and made them heaping, instead of the 1/4 C measuring cup in the original recipe.  I got 5.  If I had leveled off the scoop, there would have been 6 or 7.

1 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 C milk
1/4 C unsalted butter, melted, plus more for brushing if desired
*3/4 C shredded cheddar cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 425º and line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat.

2.  In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients (down to the paprika).  Stir in milk, then butter, then cheese.  It's going to be gloopy.  Allow to sit while the oven finishes preheating.

3.  Scoop out 1/4 C portions onto the prepared baking sheet.  Bake until light to medium golden, about 14 minutes.  Transfer to a rack to cool partway, then serve while still warm.  If storing, refrigerate and refresh in the toaster oven at a low setting.

Makes about 6

Difficulty rating  π

Pot Pie Soup

I'm not actively doing the January Pantry Challenge this year, but you wouldn't know it from the meal calendar.  I didn't buy anything for this meal, and the canned veggies were actually free with reward points.

Sure, you could do all of this from scratch.  You can also do it entirely by opening cans.  It's cold and flu season, and not everyone is in the mood to cook right now.  It's whatever works for you to make something comforting and pot pie-like.  Mine was a combination.  Yes, the broth was home made, but I also hauled it out of the freezer because I made it last month.  The excessive amount of celery is because the plant needed a trim.  The canned vegetables did contain some celery.

I'm not in the habit of using evaporated milk, but I bought some in November for a pie that never happened.  It doesn't keep forever, so I decided to use that rather than buy cream.  It was a wonderful substitution, and I think I'm going to start doing that for all cream-based soups.  Guess I'll have to start keeping a can or two in the pantry.

2 Tb unsalted butter
1 Tb olive oil
*1 C diced onion
*2 ribs celery, diced
3 Tb flour
*1 12oz can evaporated milk, or 1-1/2 C whole milk
*1 tsp dried thyme or 1 Tb fresh
salt and pepper to taste
*1 10 oz can chicken, turkey, ham, or beef
*3 to 4 C mixed veggies, frozen and/or canned
*Chicken broth as needed to thin, 1-2 cups

1.  In a large soup pot, heat butter and oil over medium-low heat.  Once melted, add onion and celery.  Cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

2.  Stir in flour until mixture becomes pasty and flour is cooked.  Add the thyme.  Gradually add milk and continue to cook until thickened.  This could take a while, since you're doing it over a lower heat to avoid scorching.  As the mixture thickens, stir constantly.

3.  Add chicken with its broth, but drain any canned veggies before adding.  Stir and bring everything to just below a boil.  If you're using frozen veggies, it's going to take a while.

4.  At this point, the consistency will be like a creamy pot pie filling.  To turn it into a soup, add broth 1/4 C at a time until desired thickness is reached.  I didn't measure, but I estimate I used a little over a cup of broth.  It was still a thick, creamy soup, but no longer a casserole.  Serve hot.

Difficulty rating  π

Adzuki Bean Meatballs

I had just a cup of dry adzuki beans left and wanted to do something non-Asian with them.  Off to the internet, where I found a GF/Vegan meatball on The Happy Lentils.  Ok, but a read through of the comments said they fell apart.  Switched it up to a non-GF/Vegetarian recipe, with what I hope are better results.

I'm not posting the sauce recipe because these don't have to be Italian themed.  I used commercial tomato-basil spaghetti sauce.  You could do a coconut curry, or a peanut sauce, barbecue, or teriyaki with these.  Probably not Alfredo.  The inherent sweetness might clash.  They could be on their own, like falafels.  How they are served is up to you.

*1 C dry adzuki beans
*1 medium or 1/2 large yellow onion
1 medium carrot
1/2 C fresh basil or *3 Tb dried
*1/2 C pecans or walnuts
*1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 egg
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1.  Sort and rinse beans.  Soak in plain water for about 8 hours.  Drain and rinse again.  Refill pot and simmer for 45 minutes.  Drain very well while you prepare the rest of the mix.

2.  Get out the food processor.  Peel and chop onion and carrot.  Add those and nuts to the processor and pulse to give them a head start before the softer items go in.

3.  Add everything else and pulse into a thick paste.  If too thin to hold a shape, add a tablespoon of flour and pulse again.  Allow mixture to rest 5 minutes before shaping.

4.  Preheat oven to 350º and line two baking sheets with parchment.  My batch didn't quite fit on one.  Make about 2 dozen patties or balls, either with your hands or assisted by a scoop or spoon.  I found the one-ounce cookie scoop to be my ideal tool.

5.  Bake until they don't dent easily when poked, about 15-20 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly, then add to whatever sauce or dish you're serving.  I don't recommend serving with toothpicks.  They're still going to break apart fairly easily once pierced.

Makes about 2 dozen, four main-course servings

Difficulty rating  π

Cranberry Sliders with Caramelized Onion

This is a little bit of a cut and paste with other recipes I've posted.  I still had some apple cranberry rolls in the freezer and one last jar of cranberry ketchup in the pantry.  The idea of pairing them with caramelized onions on a burger was too good to pass up.  After all, that's essentially what cranberry brisket is.

The onions do take a long time to make.  This isn't a last-minute dish, despite looking like it.  The good news is that you can make the onions ahead of time, say the day before, and warm them up for serving.  And of course, you don't have to do these as sliders.  They still serve four as a regular burger.

1 medium onion
1 Tb butter
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper as needed
1 lb 80/20 ground beef
1/4 C cranberry sauce or cranberry ketchup
8 slider rolls

1.  Cut in half and thinly slice the onion.  The slices don't have to be perfect, but they do need to be thin and fairly consistent.  Heat the butter and oil in a wide skillet over medium-low heat.  Add the onion slices and sprinkle lightly with salt.  I did not add sugar because the sauce is sweet.

2.  Stir slices enough to coat with the fat and walk away for 15 minutes.  Stir and let soften 15 minutes again, then start coming back every 5 minutes to check until desired golden goodness is reached.  Remove from heat.

3.  Season ground beef with salt and pepper to taste.  Portion out into 8 balls, then flatten into patties.  These can be grilled, but I did them in the oven on a flat baking rack.  If baking, set oven to 400º.  Flip once when they appear medium-rare, then switch to the broiler setting to get a bit of char for a few minutes.

4.  To assemble, toast buns if desired.  Place a patty on the bottom of the roll, smear with cranberry sauce or ketchup, and top with a generous amount of caramelized onions.  Serve with a side salad or slaw.

Difficulty rating  :)