Spinach curry thing

I don't know that this is an actual curry, but it had curry powder in it, that makes it a curry, right? I felt like making a glop, and glop I did make, but it was really good glop. Sort of like a cross between curry, saag paneer, and dahl. It would have been awesome with naan, had I thought to make some. I put chicken in this, but it didn't need it. Like most glops that I make, this is extremely flexible. Any ingredient can be removed, added, substituted, whatever. It was easy, too, all I had to do was occasionally stir it or add more liquid.

1 lb frozen spinach
1/2C red lentils
1 onion
1 tbs oil
2 cloves garlic
1-inch cube of ginger
a couple chives
a couple leaves of basil
1 chicken breast
3-4 tbs lemon juice
green curry paste*
sweet curry powder*
cumin*
salt*
sambal olek*
Thai garlic chile sauce*
coriander*
mustard seeds*

*all the spices are sort of optional, I mean you want some curry flavor, but just the green curry paste would have been fine. I just happened to have other spices, that were crying out to be used.

Start by sweating the onion in the oil, and then add the garlic until its toasted. Add 2C of water and 1/2C of lentils, and the spinach. I didn't bother thawing it, I let the boiling water around it do that. So yes, I boiled the lentils. It still tasted good. Add the rest of the spices. Put a lid on the pot and let everything cook for a while. Come back and stir and taste. Cover and cook. Continue that process until the lentils taste done. Meanwhile, cook the chicken, and when the lentils are done, add the chicken (or tofu, or lamb, or whatever you want. Or nothing). Serve with rice and naan.

Persimmon Pudding Bread

Or, persimmon bread without the baking soda. A while back, after making our persimmon pie, Jackie gave me a whole bagfull of persimmon goo. It lived in my freezer for a while, until I had time to think about what to do with it. A quick search of the internets brought me to James Beard's persimmon bread, on David Lebovitz's site, and it looked and sounded good. So I figured I'd make it. His bread looks delicious. Mine looked like this:


Thats right, somebody didn't add baking soda. I tried a piece, and despite the two sticks of butter and copious quantities of alcohol and sugar, I didn't like it. Too much like fruit cake. Or a brick. Since my colleagues seem to be immune to the bad baked goods I sometimes bring in (I rarely bring in the good stuff, I eat that), I brought in one of the two loaves. It was pretty much devoured, and people claimed to like it. Weird. So, if you like a pudding-ish, dense, moist, brick-like bread, omit the baking soda from this recipe. If you'd rather have a lighter bread, keep the baking soda. Or just turn the goop into a smoothie or something. I'm not making this one again...

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

I hesitated for a long time before putting this picture up. Because not only is it not all that appealing, its pretty disgusting-looking. I didn't take a picture while everything was warm and beautifully arranged on my plate, because I forgot, and so I took a picture of the leftovers. Somehow, I'm trying to convince you that my congealed pile of cold leftovers is delicious and fresh and steaming.


We got too many brussels sprouts, and have been eating them for a couple days, which led to the inclusion of bacon in this dish. Because bacon makes everything better. In Ed's words: "I'm bringing this to Thanksgiving next year". So despite the gloppy picture, this dish is worth making. Its flexible, you can put anything you want into it, although the brussels sprouts and the bacon you can't really do without.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

4-8 pieces of bacon (depends how much you like it)
3-4C quartered brussels sprouts
1 onion
~2 tbs lemon juice
1 kohlrabi bulb (optional)
1/2 granny smith apple (optional)
2-4 cloves garlic (optional)
2 tbs toasted pine nuts (optional)
random spices and herbs you think might go well.

Dice the bacon, and cook it until it looks delicious and edible. If you like crunchier bacon, cook it longer. Add the chopped onion, cook it until its transparent, then add the diced garlic. Add the brussels sprouts, and cover, stirring occasionally, until they're bright green. They'll probably need another minute or so to get to the perfect consistency, so add the kohlrabi now. Taste a brussels sprout from time to time, and once its at the consistency you like it at, remove the whole thing from heat, stir in the diced apple, lemon juice, and pine nuts, and serve warm.

This goes well over couscous, israeli couscous, rice, or any other grain you might have lying around. And, its addicting.

Spinach Ricotta Pie

Anna had been raving about this spinach ricotta pie from the Moosewood cookbook that she had made, and when she told me she had just made it again, I figured I had to try it. Coincidentally, I went over to Linnea's house and she made spinach ricotta pie from the Moosewood cookbook while we were there. It was good. I was hooked. Anna sent me the recipe, and I *almost* managed to follow it all the way through. It appears to be a fairly forgiving dish (like most things I cook, it better be forgiving or it isn't going to taste so good), and I ended up putting in spinach, onion, mushrooms, ground beef, and cheddar, which were all things living on the bottom shelf of my fridge that really wanted to be eaten. I meant to put in corn kernels too, but forgot and left them in the freezer. I think you could add anything, its one of those leftover-user-upper dishes, only it tastes good.

The recipe I used was a little too big for the pie crust, 2/3 of the filling fit comfortably. The other third of the filling I turned into little mini crustless quiche-y things, and they're really good. Better than the pie, actually, because they're bite-sized. I recommend making the whole recipe into little mini crustless quiche-y things, they'd be really good as an appetizer or a snack. The cheddar makes it.

Spinach Ricotta Pie - Alex's version
Crust: (use your favorite pie crust, or use this one)
1.25C flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs frozen butter
3 tbs frozen bacon grease
~1/4C cold water

Filling:
3 eggs
3C skim milk ricotta (or any kind of ricotta, I just used skim)
1lb spinach - I used frozen
1 onion
~1tbs olive oil
2C grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp salt
6-10 mushrooms, chopped
3oz ground beef, cooked
3 cloves garlic, minced

To make the crust, put the flour and the salt and the butter and the bacon grease into a food processor. Process. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, processing it in between additions, until the dough pinches together. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Cook the filling. Sweat the onions in the olive oil, then add the garlic. Then add the mushrooms and spinach, cook until most of the water is out of these. Cook the ground beef. Chop things up until they're at the size you feel like putting into your pie.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Beat the eggs together in a big bowl. Add the ricotta. Mix it around. Add the rest of the stuff, except the cheddar. Mix it all around until it looks homogenous.

Roll out your pie crust, dock it, and bake it until it is just starting to firm up. Then add the filling. Put a generous layer of cheese on top, and pop that sucker in the oven for 40-45 minutes. If the cheese isn't brown on top when its done, stick it under the broil for a minute or so. Ideally, you'll let this cool and set up a bit before you eat it.

If you have extra filling, you can bake it into little mini crustless quiche-y things. Add any leftover cheese into the filling (very important, otherwise these things won't taste cheesy, which is vital to their goodness). Grease a mini muffin pan, and then fill it to the top or overflowing with the extra filling. Bake until they aren't jiggly any more and they smell cheesy and delicious.

So this thing probably takes about an hour and a half end to end. Not the quickest, but it was durn good. Thanks Anna :)

Mussels!

'Nuff said. Go buy a bag of mussels, they tend to come in 2-lb sacks. Take them home. Rinse them until they don't feel sandy on the outsides of the shells anymore. Put them in a big pot. Fill with a cup or so of wine, a can of diced tomatoes, and another cup or two of water or stock. Bring to a boil, add some shallots, some basil, and some corn kernels (frozen is fine). Once the mussels open up, take them off the stove, put in a big dish, and slurp them out of their shells. I guess you could use a fork and be all fancy, but we found they were much tastier if we just slurped them. Then you get more of the broth and stuff too. Yum!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Read this first. Testament to how awesome this cake really is.

This recipe is another one taken straight from King Arthur Flour, which I had tried before but forgotten to take pictures. It was so good that I decided to do it a second time, and it was well worth it, as always. The original recipe is here, but I didn't put any chocolate chips in it or on it this time, because I didn't have any. The cake was fine without them, but would have been even better with more chocolate.



In case the King Arthur website ever goes down, I am reprinting the recipe (please don't sue me):

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) butter*
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sour cream or yogurt (I used yogurt this time, last time I used sour cream)
2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounce) Dutch-process cocoa
2 teaspoons espresso powder, optional but tasty
2 cups shredded zucchini (about one 10" zucchini, about 12 ounces)
1/2 cup (3 ounces) chocolate chips (didn't use these this time)
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips, for icing (didn't use these this time)

*being lazy, I only used oil.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lighlty grease a 9" x 13" pan. (I also made half the recipe with the full amount of zucchini, because I only have a 8x8" pan)

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, oil, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the eggs.

Stir in the sour cream or yogurt alternately with the flour. Then add the cocoa and espresso powder, mixing till smooth. Finally, fold in the zucchini and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes, till the top springs back lightly when touched, and it seems set. Slide the cake out of the oven, sprinkle it evenly with the 1 cup chocolate chips, and return it to the oven for 5 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven, and use a cake spatula or rubber spatula to spread the chocolate chips into a smooth glaze. Cool on a rack. Yield: 24 servings.

Persimmon Pie

While I was up in VT, I got the pleasure of finally seeing Jackie and Alex, and Jackie brought with her many, many persimmons. Apparently, living in California has its benefits, like fruit trees in your backyard. Snow vs fruit trees... snow vs fruit trees... snow vs fruit trees... eh I'll take snow. Anyway, we didn't know what to do with this many persimmons, but decided that persimmon tarts would be the perfect thing. Except, persimmon pie has a much better ring to it. So, we'll call this persimmon pie.

Jackie had never made a pie crust before, so I made her do the work, in the interest of "learning". Or lazy. You choose. We sliced the persimmons into rounds, and peeled them. We weren't sure how much they would break down in the oven, so the first pie we pre-baked before putting in the persimmons and finishing it off. They didn't break down much at all, in fact they were still really solid, so we put them in initially with the second pie, and that worked out too. They taste a little slimy, but they were pretty slimy to begin with, too. Maybe slimy is the wrong word, I mean they tasted good, just kind of slimy. In a good way. They were very pretty tarts, in the end. The persimmons were so sweet on their own that they didn't need much sugar, but we added some lemon juice. That was good too.


Jackie with a pile o' persimmons.

So here is the recipe. Its pretty free-form.

Pie crust
2.5C flour
1 tsp salt
1 stick frozen butter
4-8tbs cold water

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix together the flour and salt in a big bowl. Using the big holes of a cheese grater, grate the frozen butter into flour mixture. Use your fingertips to mix it up, squeezing it around, for a minute or so. Start adding the water, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough starts to come together. You don't want it too wet, if you can squeeze it together and it sticks, thats probably wet enough. Pack your dough into two balls, and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20-30min. This lets the flour hydrate, or something like that. After 30min take it out and roll it into flat pie crusts. Put these into two pie dishes, and try to make them look pretty. Or you could make a galette, and just fold the edges over the fruit free-form.

It'll take about 12 persimmons to fill two pie crusts, slice them into rounds and then peel them. layer them into the pie crusts, overlapping them enough to make them look pretty. Splash some lemon juice over the persimmons, and sprinkle them with a little sugar if you want. Bake for 10-20min, keep checking until the crust is a little brown on the edges.