Butternut Squash Curry

I can't remember exactly how I made this dish...except that I started from a recipe and then wandered. Knowing myself, I think I can recreate the wandering...but spur-of-the-moment embellishments should be added!

1 small butternut squash or 1/2 of a large one
1/2 onion, diced
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil or butter
salt, black pepper
1< tsp curry powder (I just kept adding until it tasted right!)
cayenne pepper powder to taste
2c. of stock (veggie or chicken, your choice!)
water

1. Peel, halve, seed and chop your squash into smallish cubes. (If you want to roast the cubed squash it can deepen the flavor, but it also adds a long step)

2. Heat enough oil or butter in a pan to saute the onions until translucent.

3. Add squash cubes, minced garlic, some curry powder, cayenne, pepper and salt while stirring continuously until the onion starts to brown lightly (or stuff starts sticking and threatening to scorch).

4. Deglaze with a splash of stock, then when everything is unstuck, add the rest of the stock.

5. Allow the concoction to simmer on low (adding water as necessary to keep it soupy) until the squash becomes soft enough to mash...then mash. (I used a potato masher and LOVED the texture I ended up with, but it could be blended for a smooth and creamy texture)

6. Continue simmering, tasting, and adding water and spices until all the flavors have blended and the grainy texture of the squash breaks down into softness.

I chose to keep this very, very thick and serve with crusty bread (which I used to scoop up the curry). It could also be served over rice or thinned to be eaten as a soup.

Spaghetti Squash and Bleu Cheese?

Yep. It's good.

Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds (roast em' if you wanna), shake on some salt and pepper, invert and bake skin side up at 350 for 50 minutes. Flip it over and check with a fork...if it pokes in easily, you're good!

Fork the flesh into "noodles", crumble in bleu cheese and parm.

YUM!!!

Apple Upside-Down Gingerbread

I stumbled across this recipe at The Barefoot Kitchen Witch and needed to try it. Obviously, because I can't leave well enough alone, I adapted it. For one, I cut the ingredients in half, because I don't need 2 dozen tiny cakes!!!

They turned out marvelously, awesome warm but would probably like some ice cream too.


Dry Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Wets #1
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup?)

Wets #2
1 small egg
1 1/2 T sour cream

1/2 cup boiling water


2 apples
extra cinnamon, ginger and sugar

1. Peel the apples, slice into <1/4" thick rounds, remove the core, and trim to fit into the bottom of the muffin tin spots. I used a wine glass to make circles. (the recipe I adapted cutely used a tiny star cookie cutter to cut out the cores)

2. Toss the apple rounds with a little cinnamon, ginger and sugar. Set aside.

3. Now, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter up a muffin tin (for a dozen)

4. mix all dry ingredients

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

6. Add in the molasses and honey and combine with the whipped butter & sugar

7. Mix the egg and sour cream together in a small bowl and set aside.

8. Place one apple round in the bottom of each muffin section of the tin.

9. boil your water

10. Alternate adding the dry mixture and egg/sour cream mixture into the butter and sugars. Mix only until combined; you don't want to overwork the flour as it'll make your gingerbread tough.

11. Once you've mixed in the last of the flour mixture, pour in your cup of boiling water and mix everything together just enough til the batter is thinner and pourable.

12. Ladle the batter into the tins. Leave 1/2 inch from the top to allow for rising.

13. bake for about 15-20 minutes (rotating for even cooking)until the edges of the wee cakes are just pulling from the sides, the tops feel "pillowy", and a toothpick comes out clean.

14. let cool in the tins for a few moments, run a table knife around the edge of each cake, then overturn with force onto a cooling rack and let rest there a bit. With luck, the cakes will come right out. Gently remove any apples that stay behind and place them back onto the cakes.

15. Eat.

Chard Calzone

I bought a bunch of beautiful rainbow chard from the Farmers Market this October...and resolved to use the leaves like spinach. The result was quite good, though I think maybe I'll do a stromboli next time!

1 recipe basic pizza dough

2c. tomato sauce

Calzone filling:

ricotta from 1/2 gal whole milk

1 lb mozzarella in small pieces (shredded or chopped)

¼ - ½ c. shredded parmesan cheese

1 green pepper chopped

½ onion chopped

1- 4 garlic cloves, chopped

olive oil

about 1 lb of swiss chard leaves (I used the stems for something else, but those could go in here too!)

other veggies of choice (including the stems, if you please)

meats if wanted

black pepper and salt to taste

oregano, thyme, basil, parsley and other herbs to taste

cornmeal (or flour) to coat baking sheet

1. Start pizza dough so that it can rise while you make your filling.

2. Prep your veggies, chop onions, and peppers into easily eaten sizes. Peel and chop garlic finely. Remove chard leaves from the stem by folding along the center crease and tearing from that rib.

3. Sauté the chopped onions (and chopped chard stems, if using) with just enough olive oil to cover the surface of a sauté pan. When they start looking transparent, add the green pepper and garlic. Feel free to add other veggies as appropriate, but remember DON’T CROWD THE PAN. Continue cooking until the onions start getting slightly browned around the edges and the peppers are bright but still have crunch.

4. Set this mixture aside in a large bowl to cool.

5. Preheat oven to 375 (if you have a baking stone, place it in now)

6. Using the same pan, wilt the chard leaves. They should fill it to overflowing when fresh, but heat and stirring with take them down like spinach.

7. Once all the leaves are soft and bendy, turn onto a cutting board and allow to cool before chopping.

8. By this time, the first veggie mixture should be cool enough to handle. Mix in the ricotta and mozzarella cheeses (I find it easier to do by hand).

9. When the calzone dough has doubled in size, divide it into 2-4 balls (2 huge, 4 reasonable) and let rest while you coarsely chop the chard leaves and add them to the filling mixture.

10. Plan your calzone dough placement, and dust a small area of a baking sheet with flour or cornmeal for each calzone. The purpose is to keep the bottom of the calzone from sticking, but you don’t want cornmeal to get on the top while you fill it. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a circle (dough should be ¼-1/3” thick) and transfer to your prepared pan.

11. Divide your filling into the number of calzones you’re making, and then spoon the filling onto the half of the calzone you placed on cornmeal. Make sure to leave an edge to seal!

12. Pull the empty half of the dough circle over the filling, and use a fork to seal the edge. It’s not a bad idea to cut a few slits in the top too.

13. Bake for about 30 minutes, removing when the crust turns a golden brown.

Serve w/ tomato sauce

Basic Tomato Sauce

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 carrot, peeled & chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 qt whole or crushed tomatoes and juice(if starting fresh, slit the skin of about 10 small tomatoes, immerse in boiling water bath, remove skin & stem)
Salt, pepper, oregano, basil, thyme

In a large pot, saute the onion and celery in the olive until slightly translucent. Add garlic and carrot and continue stirring. When the onions are lightly browned, pour in the tomatoes and season to taste. Allow to come to a simmer and remain there until all tomato pieces have broken down and the sauce has thickened to your liking (30 min - 2 hours). Do your final seasoning and and let the sauce cool to serve.

Stocks

There is NO REASON not to make your own stock! It's a great way to get the most out of your food dollar (and footprint) plus stocks add nutrients and flavor to whatever they go into. Finally, you can customize them to whatever you plan to make...

Basic:
Veggie trimmings (carrot peels and ends, onion skin and ends, celery base and leaves, corn cobs...)*
scant herbs (rosemary stems, thyme, oregano, parsley...)
pepper & salt
If you wish: roasted animal remains (bones, skin, heads, tails...) IMPORTANT, for basic stock stick to one type of animal per batch!!!** For extra flavor, open the roasted bones for marrow.
I like to add cleaned eggshells and a dash of vinegar. The vinegar helps draw calcium out of the shells (and bones, if you've got 'em)


1. Place all ingredients in a stock pot with water to cover. Bring it to a boil, then simmer until a desired flavor is reached.

2. Strain out solids and allow to cool.

3. If there is a large quantity of fat present, remove that with either a fat separator or by refrigerating the stock and physically removing the fat on top. Consider reserving this fat for cooking or for making suet.

4. Stock can be used immediately, pressure canned, or frozen. I find it easiest to freeze in ice cube trays and then bag the cubes.


MAKE SURE TO LABEL YOUR STOCK!

Advanced:

*Veggies such as broccoli, cabbage, and mushroom (stems) impart more distinct flavors to a stock. This can be good, or it can ruin a dish. Make sure you plan well and label any stock that has an abundance of these flavors in it.

**Get creative with your animal remains. How about a turducken stock? Again LABEL!!!

Ricotta or Paneer

This makes about 1.5 cups of cheese


Ingredients:
1/2 gallon of whole milk (lower fats = less cheese)
1 lemon (it's not a bad idea to have extra on hand)
salt (and pepper too if you want)

Equipment:
saucepan large enough for the milk (this works well with a double boiler too)
mesh strainer
cheese cloth

For Paneer:
a setup to press the cheese (I used two containers that nest reasonably well, a pie plate to catch the moisture, and a large bowl to fill with water as a weight.)

METHOD FOR BOTH CHEESES

1. slowly bring the milk and salt to a boil, stir often to avoid scorching

2. the instant it boils, turn off your heat and squeeze the juice from the lemon through the strainer (to catch pulp and pips) into the milk, stirring gently. Curds will form, stir just enough to keep them from sticking to the pan.

3. line the strainer with cheesecloth. You may want to reserve the whey, if so place a container below the strainer.

4. when the curds seem to have separated from the whey, gently pour everything into the cheesecloth. Allow this to rest until it stops running.

5. At this point, you have a soft ricotta. If you wish, you can allow it to drain longer, or even hang the cheesecloth to draw out more moisture.

METHOD FOR PANEER

6. Gently press the cheese into an even depth (the best is a rectangle about 3/4" high) and fold the cheesecloth around it.

7. Press with increasing weight until the cheese is firm and no more whey is coming out.

Basic Pizza Dough

This is enough for one large pizza, 2 huge calzones, or 4 reasonable ones.

1 c. water
1 packet (1 tbs) yeast
a pinch of something sweet for the yeast to eat
2 + cups of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil


Follow steps 1-5 on the basic bread recipe, except that instead of greasing a loaf pan you need to flour or cornmeal a pizza pan (if doing pizza, otherwise follow the directions in your recipe)

Preheat oven to 375

stretch or roll out the pizza to fit the pan, top with your preferred ingredients, and bake until the crust is golden and the toppings done.

Basic Bread

The possibilities for variation are endless.

2c. warm water
a pinch of something sweet for the
1 packet (1tbs) yeast to eat
about 4 cups of flour (our choice on what kind)
1/2 tsp salt

1. Mix something sweet and yeast into the warm water and allow to rest until foaming

2. Meanwhile mix together salt and 2 c. of flour. When the yeast water is ready, stir it into the flour. Gradually add more flour until dough starts to get stiff,

3. then turn onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour as needed. When the dough is elastic and "shiny" on the surface, shape it into a ball, oil lightly, and put into a covered bowl to rise in a warm, draft-free place.

4. When the dough is double and a finger will go and leave a deep hole, press the dough down and turn it back onto the floured surface.

5. Allow it to rest there for about 5 minutes (grease a loaf pan with butter, oil or shortening) then give the dough a second knead. (AP flour requires a longer second knead, WW flour just needs to be shaped, mixes need to be kneaded by ratio.)

6. Shape the dough into a round as long as the pan and place it, seam side down into the pan.

7. Allow it to rise again, double in size. (A good place for this is on top of the oven, as the heat will help it rise more quickly). As it gets close to the end, preheat the oven to 375.

8. Bake the loaf for about 30 minutes, or until it sound "hollow" when thumped. I like to turn it out of the pan for the last few minutes of baking.

Allow it to rest and cool before cutting (this sets the crumb, or texture of the bread)

Why start ANOTHER blog in the world?

Because I want to keep track of what happens (and what I eat) seasonally.

Go me Go.