teaspoon spices

Creamed fennel cabbage

Not everybody in my household loves cabbage.  But I do!  I frequently make a one dish meal of cabbage, apples and pork chops, and everyone is pretty compliant about eating it.  But cabbage as a side dish?  Or plain cabbage as an accompaniment? Not so fast.

I came up with a solution last night, and it is a keeper.  (Even the Doctor agreed to that, and he usually complains that cabbage makes the house smell bad for days.)  I love the sweet flavor of fennel in the autumn, and wanted to make a more substantial dish of the cabbage than just steaming or sautéing usually yields.

 I experimented with creaming a lot of vegetables this summer, as I was totally hooked on the Victory Garden cookbook, and just about every other recipe in that classic volume either calls for cream or is a creamed version.   Then one of the NY Times food writers got me hooked on creamed corn (which I spiced up, of course.)  I have also been trying to eat less meat (well, less food in general if you want to know the truth) but I find I am far more satisfied when I have a little bit of richness in my veggies rather than just plain steamed or roasted veggies.

So I made creamed cabbage.  I had a beautiful tender cabbage from One Straw Farm, our local CSA.  It was lovely in texture and flavor, it did not smell during cooking or afterward, and I served it with a gratin of eggplant and butternut squash. 

Creamed Fennel Cabbage

1 teaspoon fennel seed

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 green cabbage head, cored and cut into 4 or 8 wedges (depending on size)

½ cup chicken broth

½ to 1 cup half and half or cream.

 

Melt the butter in a large enough saucepan to hold the cabbage easily.  Add fennel seed, salt and pepper and allow fennel seeds to toast until fragrant.  Add cabbage to pan, and sauté briefly.  Pour chicken broth and cream over and allow to simmer over low heat for about ½ hour, until cabbage is tender and soft.  Remove cabbage from pan with a slotted spoon, then reduce cream and broth mixture until the sauce is thick and almost syrupy. 

Pour the sauce over the cabbage and serve with a lean protein or another vegetable dish as a main course.  Add more salt and coarse ground pepper to taste.

--Katie

 

Blend your own curry powder

Katie's post on curried squash reminded me how much I love curried vegetables this time of year. Something about the warm flavors of cumin, turmeric, and the other spices that make up a good curry blend seem to go well with the onset of cooler evenings.

We love our Smart Spice curry powder blend. But it's also fun to blend your own, which you can easily do. The recipe is simple. And because you can control the amount of each spice, you can make it hotter with more chile pepper, or choose less heat and add more cumin for earthiness or a bit more ginger for that special ginger tingle.

Here's our favorite formula for self-blending curry powder. You can use it for the curried squash coins in the previous post, or in any other dish that calls for curry. One of our favorite uses for this blend is adding it to mayonnaise (start with 1 teaspoon for about 1/2 cup of mayo) and spread it on your favorite lunch-time sandwich. If you don't have all these spices on hand, check out our $10 spice sampler.

Curry powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon mild chile pepper

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Store the unused seasoning in an airtight container for up to 2 months.

Makes 2 tablespoons

--Sara

Curried butternut squash "coins"

I always love autumn- not least because I love the richness of autumn vegetables,  especially squash.

Last week, I picked up a beautiful butternut squash at our CSA, and thought about what to do with it.  I had recently seen a recipe that called for cutting wedges out of an acorn squash and roasting them. 

The shape of butternut squash does not really lend itself to this treatment, so instead I sliced it into "coins," all the way down the neck.  Once I reached the fat part that houses the seeds, I made the coins a bit thicker, and then cut the seedy part out, leaving a ring.

I sprayed a baking pan with non-stick spray, then placed the squash coins on the pan.  This was a small, tender squash, so I didn't even need to peel it. I sprinkled the slices with a packet of Smart Spice curry powder, and roasted them at 375 degrees for a little more than 30 minutes. 

These squash coins were delicious, and lovely to look at.  I plan to include them as a side dish at my next dinner party because they were beautiful, tasty and most important, easy!

--Katie

A boost for fresh basil

It has been a hot, hard summer for our backyard basil. This time of year, it's typical for a few of our plants to be losing their color and generally looking like they've run their course. But this year, practically all of them seem to be well into an end-of-summer swoon, still weeks before the first frost. So the secret we learned long ago about cooking with fresh basil -- boosting it with dried basil -- is coming in handy.

Even when basil is splendidly green and fresh, we've learned that a teaspoon of dried basil is a delicious addition to pesto or our other favorite fresh-basil recipes. Both dried basil and fresh basil are delicious, and each has strengths.

Fresh basil is, well, wonderfully fresh-tasting. Dried basil is intense, with a concentrated flavor. Added to fresh basil, it creates a deeper layer of flavor, like a good bass line in a melodious tune. 

So, as you harvest your own basil, or take advantage of a fresh bunch at a farmers market or the grocery store, remember that you can boost your basil flavor by adding a teaspoon or two of dried basil. And if your dried basil is organic, you get 100% pure flavor, no additives or fillers to dilute the pleasure.

--Sara

A late-summer salad

Our CSA has been offering some beautiful seeded watermelons, a fat, round, heirloom variety called Moon and Stars. I can't resist a good watermelon, especially in the waning days of summer. And despite the bother, I'm firmly convinced that seeded watermelons taste better.

The farmers' market is also teeming with beautiful heirloom tomatoes, and they are worth the wait.

Either of these fruits (yes, tomato is technically a fruit) is delicious all on its own. But a couple of years ago I came across a recipe for watermelon-tomato salad and was delighted with the combination.

I tried recreating the salad and remembered why we liked it so much in the first place. My version included a couple of different kinds of tomatoes, along with fresh basil and mint from the garden, a handful of crumbled feta cheese, and a red wine vinaigrette.

What I didn't add, and what the salad needed, was some concentrated basil flavor -- organic dried basil. I added a teaspoon, and it made all the difference. Yet another reminder that despite all the fresh herbs in the garden there's a place in summer cooking for fresh-tasting dried herbs -- organic, of course.

--Sara

Corn, corn and more corn

Since it is nearing the end of the summer, I find I want to eat as much corn as possible, on the cob, in salads, sauteed...however, whenever, why not.

last weekend, we went to the market and there was corn available from 2 of my favorite farm stands, so I bought some from both.  One variety was yellow, the other was white.  We decided to do a taste test, which was inconclusive.  Both were delicious.  However, I had a LOT of leftover, uneaten corn on the cob.  I stick it in the fridge and tried to think of something to do with it.  (I had EIGHT ears!)

I remembered our friend Rosemary talking about eating pan fried corn kernels as a child, and decided to make something like that.

I cut all the kernels from the cobs, seasoned them up, sauteed them and voila!  we had a second helping of delicious corn the next night.  It was so good that I am planning to make it for company tonight.

6-8 ears of corn, lightly steamed, kernels removed

2 Tbsps butter

1 tsp organic cumin

1 tsp ancho chile pepper

1 tsp organic thyme

2 tsp sugar

salt, pepper

1/2 cup cream

melt butter in saute pan.  Add corn spices, sugar, salt and pepper and let cook until corn is heated through.  Add cream, and let cook until cream is mostly evaporated and corn becomes a little brown and crispy. 

Enjoy!

~Katie

Sour Cherry Ice Cream with Anise and Chocolate Chips

Early in the summer, I bought a bunch of sour cherries and froze them in 1 cup portions.  I love the tart-sweet flavor of sour cherries, and the season is so brief that I am always looking for ways to extend it.  We have also been on an ice cream kick, because of our new book,  Spice Dreams, so I wanted to use the cherries that way.

Because I was a bit lazy and froze my cherries with the pits in them, I had to thaw them and then remove the pits.  It was not difficult, but added a step to my recipe when I had to press the cherries through a mesh sieve.

I was thinking about how to flavor the cherries, and Diana suggested anise seed.  I was a little skeptical at first, thinking that the flavor of the anise seeds might be overwhelmed by the tartness of the cherries.  But I was wrong and she was right.  We threw in some miniature chocolate chips at the end too, and the whole thing came together perfectly.

Even if you did not freeze cherries this summer, you can do it next summer.  Don't forget!

2 cups Half & Half

1 pinch of salt

2 cups sour cherries (mine were frozen..fresh ones would be even easier)

1 tsp anise seed

1 tsp orange zest

1 Tbs cherry preserves

4 eggs yolks

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

2 cups whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat half and half, cherries, anise seed and salt in sauce pan until hot.  Do not boil.  When cherries are soft, pour warm milk and cherry mixture through a coarse sieve, pressing on solids to extract juice and flesh of cherries while removing pits. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until light and lemony in color.  

Add 1/2 cup of cherry mixture to egg yolks and sugar, and beat to blend.  Continue to add hot milk to egg yolks slowly until fully incorporated.

Return mixture to heat and cook until thickened.  (The sour juice of the cherries made the half and half separate a bit, but as I cooked the custard, it knitted itself back together again.--- It might have been because my cherries were frozen.)  Do not boil!  When custard has thickened, add remaining 2 cups of whipping cream, vanilla extract and cherry preserves to mixture.  Mix well and chill several hours or overnight to let flavors meld.

Process in ice cream mixture following manufacturer's instructions.

In last few minutes of mixing, add mini chocolate chips.

Freeze until firm, then serve.

makes about 1 quart of ice cream.

Grass-Fed Pot Roast with Allspice and Cinnamon

Sara has been having a fling with eggplant.  My family has been loving grass-fed beef.  It is much more widely available now than ever before, and it tastes so much better than regular grocery store beef.

So here's an easy dish to make and enjoy:

3 lb pot roast (preferably grass-fed)

1 TBSP olive oil

2 tsps organic allspice

1 tsp organic cinnamon

1 tsp organic mild chile 

1 tsp organic oregano

salt and pepper to taste

1 onion, thinly sliced

1-2 garlic cloves thinly sliced or mashed

6 carrots, peeled and sliced (optional)

1 large can chopped tomatoes

1 cup broth or dry red wine

Dry pot roast.  Make a mixture of spices, salt, and pepper and pat evenly over entire roast.

Heat olive oil in dutch oven (or an oven ready pan you can cover with foil or a lid.)

Sear seasoned roast until brown and crusty on both sides.  Sprinkle onions and garlic around roast, (You could also add some carrots here if you had them.)  Pour tomatoes over top.  Add broth or wine to thin tomatoes.  Cover tightly and cook for 3 hours until fork tender.

Remove from pan, drain. let rest, and serve with pan juices and softened onions if desired.

~Katie

Eggplant steaks

This is becoming my eggplant summer. One Straw Farm, where we are CSA members, is harvesting a bounty of varieties, large and small, voluptuous and demur. I can' resist them.

So I've gone in search of more eggplant recipes. My new favorite is grill-simple: marinated eggplant steaks.

It's simply slices of eggplant -- the big ones we're used to seeing in the grocery store. Salt the slices and let them drain in a colander for half an hour. Then marinade them for at least 15 minutes, grill and eat.

The first time I made these, I served them as a side dish.

The next night I made them the base of a "tomato tower." I spread some homemade pesto on the eggplant slices, topped them with slices of heirloom tomato, a fresh basil leaf and a slice of fresh mozzarella. I topped it off with a drizzle of olive oil and a trickle of my homemade red wine vinegar, a tiny bit of sea salt and a twist of black pepper. My guys couldn't believe they were getting something that fancy for a weeknight dinner.

The "steak" recipe comes from my new go-to summer-veggie cookbook, "The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook," by Andrea Chesman. Andrea suggests these eggplant slices can also be used instead of bread for a veggie sandwich, or as toppings for homemade pizza. 

Marinated Eggplant Steaks

1 medium (about 1 pound) eggplant, peeled and sliced 3/8 inch thick

1 tablespoon salt

1/3 cup herb vinaigrette (see below)

Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt and let them drain in a colander for 30 minutes. Rinse well and pat dry. Transfer the eggplant to a shallow baking dish and pour the vinaigrette over it. Let it stand for at least 15 minutes to absorb the marinade. 

Prepare a medium-hot fire in a grill or pre-heat a broiler

Grill or broil the eggplant, turning occasionally, untl tender and grill-marketed, 10 to 14 minutes. The eggplant should be slightly crusty on the outside but still moist and soft inside. 

--Andrea Chesman, "The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook"

Herb Vinaigrette

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons dried organic basil

2 teaspoons dried organic oregano

2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the garlic, herbs, vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl. SLowly pour in the olive oil, whisking until the oil is fully incorporated.

--adapted from "The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook"

Of course, this marinade is also a fine salad dressing.

--Sara

Enough with the spiced fruit ice creams! We want chocolate!

Well, one of the (many) reasons I like making my own ice cream (as opposed to buying it) is the fact that nothing lasts too long.  My husband will occasionally buy a half gallon of ice cream, and that thing seems to hang around getting icy and unappetizing in my freezer, FOREVER!

Nonetheless, I admit that I have made my family eat a LOT of ice cream this summer.  And most of them have been no-cook, custardless, "philly-style" ice creams, predominantly of the spiced fruit variety.

Someone put their foot down today, and said, NO to another batch of peach allspice...(Don't worry, I'll get back to it.)  The same voice said, "Are you REALLY going to make us eat beet ice cream again?  How about something with chocolate in it?"

So I relented, and made a batch of allspice chocolate chip ice cream (with strawberries).  Believe me, it is a keeper!

Strawberry allspice chocolate chip ice cream

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp allspice

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, or cracked and broken large chocolate chips.  (Dark chocolate is preferable to milk chocolate chips.)

1 cup thinly sliced strawberries

Strawberries for garnish

Mix cream, salt, sugar, allspice and vanilla in a large bowl.  Mix well. Chill overnight. 

Process in ice cream maker until ice cream has consistency of soft serve ice cream.  Add strawberries and chocolate chips, and continue processing until firm.   Freeze until solid and serve with more freshly sliced strawberries.

This recipe would also be super with cardamom.

For our Baltimore readers, Smart Spice and tsp spices are both available at Graul's Markets in Ruxton, May's Chapel and Hereford, as well as at Atwater's in Belvedere Square and Annapolis.

If you live elsewhere, you can find Smart Spice on our web site at www.smart-spice.com, www.alice.com and tsp spices at Amazon.com, and from our web site, www,tspspices.com 

~Katie