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It’s All About the Food

Posted in About me, In The Kitchen, Recipes, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 26, 2010| 1 Comment »

It’s all about the food. Sometimes the best way to learn about a country and its culture is to learn about its food and its cooking traditions. Lucky for me, my daughter, who was a student in Greece for nearly five months, was not only my tour guide to the ancient sites, but also my culinary guide.

From dining in little tavernas that speckle the narrow side streets of Athens to eating fresh-caught fish off the coast of Santorini, I was introduced to the exquisite textures and flavors of Greek food. Sampling inch-long baby okra cooked in a light tomato and onion sauce, devouring tiny fried whitebait fish – head, tail, spine and all, and spreading pureed dried yellow peas on bread, were just some of the opportunities I used to discover the gastronomic resources available to the Greeks. I learned that some of the varieties of legumes we eat today are the same ones once eaten in ancient times.

And because the sun shines most of the year and very little rain falls, Greek tomatoes and peppers are exceptionally sweet. The freshness of Greek ingredients cannot be denied. Most foods are simply delicious because they are prepared with fresh and few ingredients. Very few over-processed foods ever made it to my table while I was in Greece.


Scorpion fish or grilled octopus, anyone? The seafood in Greece was as good as I had anticipated. The subtle lobster-like flavor of the Scorpion fish and the chewy texture of the fresh octopus were both delicious, but it was the fried calamari that really got my attention. Maybe it was the freshness of the squid or the very lightest dredging of flour or the addition of exactly the right amount of salt, but this Greek version of fried calamari was by far the best I’ve ever tasted!

The Greeks love their sweets. The sweet scent of freshly baked pastries found me following my nose into more than one local bakery. Even before I left home, my daughter had warned me about this temptation. I’d heard her stories about Bougatsa me Krema and was looking forward to my first taste. It did not disappoint. How could warm layers of buttery, thin phyllo sheets filled with creamy custard, and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon be disappointing? Before the introduction of sugar, ancient Greeks used honey to sweeten their food. Thick, creamy, Greek yogurt and honey is a traditional treat and Greeks like to make sweet syrups from honey to pour over their cakes and fried sweets. Many Loukoumades or Greek donut balls coated in a honey-syrup called out to me.

Now back at home, I wanted to try my hand at making the memorable Bougatsa me Krema and I found a recipe online. Flakey, buttery and filled with custard – mine was pretty darn close to the deliciousness I experienced in Greece! I share this temptation with you.

Bougatsa me Krema or Creamy Custard Phyllo Pastry

-Courtesy of Nancy Gaifyllia of About.com with comments by Linnell-

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

* 4 1/4 cups of whole milk

* sliced peel of 1 lemon

* 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar

* 3/4 cup of semolina (durum wheat flour which I found in my local grocery store)

* 4 eggs

* 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

* 12 sheets of commercial phyllo dough

* 6 ounces of butter, melted

For the topping:

* confectioner’s sugar

* ground cinnamon

Preparation:

Warm the milk and lemon peel in a saucepan. Stir in semolina with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thoroughly blended and thickened. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until light and add to the pan, stirring over medium-low heat until it reaches a creamy custard consistency. Remove from heat, take out and discard lemon peel, and allow it to cool completely. Stir occasionally to keep the custard from forming a skin on top.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Lightly brush a baking pan (13 X 9 X 2 or equivalent) with butter. Line the bottom of the pan with 8 sheets of phyllo, brushing each sheet well with the melted butter. Add the custard filling. Fold the excess phyllo that overlaps the pan in over the custard. Top with the remaining phyllo, brushing each with butter. Use a scissors to trim the top sheets to the size of the pan. Spray the top lightly with water and bake at 350°F (180°C) for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon while hot, and serve warm.

Serving tip: In Greece, Bougatsa is cut with a pizza cutter.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Greece – to be continued . . .

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Cookies to Go

Posted in In The Kitchen, Recipes, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on May 3, 2010| 1 Comment »

With airline food what it is (or isn’t) these days, I always pack my own food to eat when I travel. I used to take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because of their nonperishable nature until I came across a “no-peanut flight.” All passengers on that flight, including my family, were asked to not carry aboard any food that contained peanuts or peanut butter, because a passenger with a severe peanut allergy was going to board the plane. Most people seemed to comply, but many were not too happy, especially when after boarding, bags of opened peanuts were found in seat pockets all over the plane! Someone forgot to tell airline housekeeping about the “no-peanut flight!” That said, my favorite travel fare usually includes some of the following: sandwiches made without mayonnaise, apples, oranges, beef jerky, granola bars, homemade trail mix, and always homemade cookies.

These buckwheat cookies with cacao nibs are among my favorite cookies to eat whether I’m traveling or not. I like the texture and taste that the buckwheat flour lends to the cookies. Because buckwheat is low in gluten, it works like cornstarch does in shortbread cookies; it produces a more compact and crunchy-textured cookie. As for the cacao nibs, small pieces of roasted cocoa beans, they give these cookies a nice crunch and a hint of chocolate flavor. An added bonus of these nibs is that they won’t melt during your trip like chocolate chips normally would. I purchase cacao nibs at Whole Foods. I like to add chopped walnuts to this recipe because they add protein and fiber – good things to have when traveling!

There are many variations of this recipe on the internet, but most seem to originate from the cookbook Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. Here’s my adaptation of Ms. Medrich’s recipe:

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup cacao nibs
1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Directions:
1. Whisk the all-purpose and buckwheat flours together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, with the back of a large spoon or with an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar and salt for about 1 minute, until smooth and creamy but not fluffy. Mix in the nibs and vanilla. Add the flours and the walnuts; mix just until incorporated. Scrape the dough into a mass and, if necessary, knead it with your hands a few times, just until smooth.

3. Form the dough into a 12 by 2-inch log. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or, preferably overnight.

4. Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place the cookies at least 1-1/2 inches apart on the baking sheets.

6. Bake until the cookie are just beginning to color at the edges, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking. Cool the cookies in the pans on a rack, or slide the parchment liners carefully onto the rack to free up the pans. Let cool completely. The cookies are delicious fresh but even better the next day. They can be stored in an airtight container for at least one month.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Note: After the cookies have cooled completely, I wrap them individually in plastic wrap, put them in a Ziploc bag and freeze them. Just before I leave the house, I grab them out of the freezer, throw them in my carry-on bag, and they’re good to go!

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Simple Things

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , on April 26, 2010| 1 Comment »

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that are the best. What could be more simple than serving a warm loaf of rustic bread with a bowl of good quality olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar? Combine that with a hearty soup or a healthy salad and you have yourself a great meal. Of course, adding a bottle of wine to the menu would make the meal even more enjoyable! Here’s a simple recipe for a dipping oil very much like the type served in Piatti Restaurants.

Piatti-Style Dipping Oil:
1/4 teaspoon chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon finely minced fresh garlic
Pinch of salt – to taste
Pinch of freshly ground pepper – to taste
Pinch of chili flakes
Balsamic vinegar, enough to cover bottom of small serving dish
Extra virgin olive oil, 4:1 olive oil to vinegar

Place ingredients in the order listed into a small serving dish or ramekin.

Makes enough for two people to dip bread with their meal.

Enjoy!

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Friday’s Fresh Five (4/23/10)

Posted in Community, Gardening, Helping Others, inspiration, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 23, 2010| 2 Comments »

Today’s post is dedicated to the memory of Alicia Rose Parlette who passed away yesterday at the young age of 28. Alicia was a gifted writer, journalist, and was a close friend of my oldest son. Bravely chronicling her diagnosis and ensuing life with incurable cancer in a 17-part series called “Alicia’s Story” for the San Francisco Chronicle, Alicia was and continues to be a source of inspiration for people all over the world. The world has lost a beautiful person and a brilliant spirit.

#1 – The Language of Flowers
Most people will agree that a gift of flowers is a thoughtful gesture. So that you know what your gift is really saying, here are some of the more traditional meanings for today’s popular flowers according to Pioneerthinking.com:

Anemone – Unfading love
Baby’s Breath – Everlasting love
Cyclamen – Resignation and goodbye
Daisy – Innocence
Forget-Me-Not – True love; memories
Gardenia – You’re lovely; secret love
Hydrangea – Thank you for understanding; frigidity; heartlessness
Iris – Faith; hope; wisdom and valor
Jasmine – Amiability; attracts wealth
Lavender – Devotion
Marigold – Comforts the heart
Nasturtium – Conquest; victory in battle; maternal love; charity; patriotism
Oleander – Caution; beware
Petunia – Resentment; anger; your presence soothes me
Rose (general) (red) – Love ; I love you
Stock – Lasting beauty
Tulip (general) – Fame, charity; perfect lover
Violet – Modesty; calms tempers; induces sleep
Zinnia – Thoughts of friends

#2 – A Book to Grow By
Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott wrote a little book called If Life is a Game, These Are the Rules that’s filled with a lot of food for thought. She writes about her “Ten Rules for Being Human.” These rules may seem self-evident to most people, myself included, but I discovered reading about them in detail to be an enlightening experience.

Here are Dr. Carter-Scott’s Ten Rules For Being Human:
1. You will receive a body.
2. You will be presented with lessons.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
4. Lessons are repeated until learned.
5. Learning does not end.
6. “There” is no better than “here.”
7. Others are only mirrors of you.
8. What you make of your life is up to you.
9. All the answers are inside of you.
10. You will forget all of this at birth.

#3 – Make Word Clouds
Sitting at your computer, but need to take a little break? Go to www.wordle.net and make a “word cloud.” You type in the words and decide on font, layout, and colors. A print-worthy word cloud is yours for free.

#4 – Updates & Comments
Here are a few comments and updates from readers:
A. My coworker’s husband who has been eating steel cut oatmeal as per My Most Requested Recipe post has had his cholesterol score drop 34 points since his 2008 results! Way to go Jim!

B. I received a comment from someone regarding an entry I wrote on April 9th. I wrote about about how your garden can help others if you “Plant a Row for the Hungry” and reader Gar offered this additional information:
Another way your readers can help the needy is to visit http://www.AmpleHarvest.org – a site that helps diminish hunger by enabling backyard gardeners to share their crops with neighborhood food pantries.

The site is free both for the food pantries and the gardeners using it.

Backed by Google.com and the USDA, more than 1,600 food pantries nationwide are already on it and more are signing up daily.

It includes preferred delivery times, driving instructions to the pantry as well as (in many cases) information about store bought items also needed by the pantry (for after the growing season).

If your community has a food pantry, make sure they register on http://www.AmpleHarvest.org.

C. It seems a lot of readers did not understand the title of my April 12th post. “Release the Cracklin!” was a tongue-in-cheek referral to the phrase “Release the Kraken!” that the god Zeus yells out in the movies “Clash of the Titans.” A Kraken is a mythical sea monster of gargantuan size. A cracklin’ or crackling is the crispy skin of a pig. I was taking artistic leeway in calling bacon a cracklin’. Okay, you can laugh, now.

D. Although this is not a comment, it is a request from a reader. I have been asked to ask my readers, especially the gardeners out there, if they know of any pest or critter that could be responsible for stripping off all the leaves and flowers on his vegetable plants overnight. Something devoured his plants and he can’t figure out what. He has wired fencing all around his vegetable garden to keep the deer away and he has placed barriers into the soil to prevent rabbits from burrowing under the fence. He thinks it had to be something that climbed over the fence. Ideas, anyone?

#5 – Little Flower
Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
-Hans Christian Andersen-

Goodbye little flower. Bless you Alicia Rose Parlette.

For more information about Alicia and to contribute to the Alicia Parlette Fund for Aspiring Journalists please go to msparlette.wordpress.com.

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Beer Bread: From Ick to Lick

Posted in In The Kitchen, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Continuing to “attack the stack,” I pulled a newspaper clipping out of a pile and looked at the date of May, 2008. “It’s time to check out this baby,” I thought to myself. Perusing the very short list of ingredients – only four – I noted that I had everything that was required. Nothing extraordinary on the list except for b-e-e-r! How great is it that the yeast in beer acts as a mild leavening agent, so we can use it in our baking?!

One of the comments provided by the newspaper recipe contributor was,”This bread is a canvas for you to flavor any way you choose.” Being a risk-taker in the kitchen, I decided to give my loaf a Tex-Mex type of flavor by adding a can of diced green chilies and some shredded cheddar cheese to the flour, sugar, salt, and beer. In my head I thought the flavors would meld together well.

When I sampled the final product of an inviting golden-brown-crusted loaf of bread, I was amazed. I was amazed at how awful it was! I had my volunteer food tester, aka my husband, taste it. I knew it was as nasty as it could get when my lover-of-everything-I-prepare husband said, “This is inedible!” It was bitter and had a slimy texture. So, on my Ick-Scale of one to ten this was a ten-ick. Wow, where did I go wrong?

Reviewing the recipe and the entire process, these are the possible errors I made:
1. The beer was a light beer and possibly did not have enough flavor and did not add enough body to the batter.

2. I accidentally added baking soda instead of baking powder to the flour mixture. The recipe stated that if you did not have self-rising flour you could add 3 teaspoons of baking powder to the flour to achieve the same results. Remember, I’ve mentioned this before, I am not beyond screwing up recipes by not reading them thoroughly.

3. My husband thinks the sliminess came from the diced green chilies, but I’m not sure if this is true. The recipe contributor had commented on friends adding chilies to their breads.

4. I should have gotten out two bottles of beer – one for me to drink first and then one to add to the bread!

Not wanting to accept that I had been bested by a six-ingredient Beer Bread, I decided to start over. I was more diligent about reading the recipe through and decided to forgo the Tex-Mex route for an Italian-Herb type one. I made a few other changes to the batter and stuck the second Beer Bread loaf in the oven. With trepidation, I carefully sliced the second crusty loaf and put a piece into my mouth. Okay, this is what a successful Beer Bread is supposed to taste like – finger-licking good!

So here’s my adaptation of successful Beer Bread:

Ingredients:
*1 12 oz. can or bottle of beer. (I used a bottle of Foster’s the second time around).
*3 cups of sifted self-rising flour (If you don’t have self-rising flour at home, you can make it by sifting together 3 cups of all-purpose flour with 4-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt).
*1/3 cup of sugar (upped from 3 T in original recipe and I would consider increasing or decreasing the sugar amount depending on what ingredients you are adding to the basic batter).
*2 2.25 oz. cans of sliced olives
*1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1/2 cup Italian Blend Cheese
Butter, optional

Directions:
1. In a large bowl mix together the sugar and the sifted flour. Stir in the Italian seasoning. Make a well into the flour-sugar-seasoning mixture and slowly pour in the beer. Mix until just moistened. Add the cheese and olives. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
2. Pour into a greased 9″x5″ loaf pan. Let sit for a bit to let the yeast in the beer get settled (15-30 minutes).
3. Bake at 350 degrees for a total of 45 to 50 minutes. Test with a toothpick or cake tester after 45 minutes.
4. If desired at the halfway baking point, brush melted butter on the top of the bread and sprinkle with a little garlic salt. Repeat the brushing of butter and sprinkling of garlic salt when the loaf comes out of the oven.

Cheers and good luck!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (4/16/10)

Posted in About me, Creativity, Helping Others, In The Kitchen, inspiration, Recipes, Recycling, tagged , , , , , , on April 16, 2010| 2 Comments »

This photo says it all. It’s that kind of day. It’s a hula-hooping, sun-shining day and, even though I sound like I live on Sesame Street, I feel that way. Today’s my birthday and I’m celebrating the gift of this very lovely day!

#1 – Gifts That Help
Finding gifts for others can be difficult, but at charitablegiving.com it is not only easy to find unique gifts, it is also helping to fulfill the needs of others. The blog states, The purpose of this blog is to find some of the best stuff you can buy on the Web where a portion of the proceeds are donated to a charity or other non-profit organization in need.

We’ll surf major retailing sites, as well as mom-and-pop sites, to find the best out there. Whether you buy these products as gifts for others or for yourself, you can feel great about your purchase, knowing that you’re not just buying a gift, but helping a great cause too.

Not only does this blog post about products and causes, but it also invites its readers to post about other cause-worthy products. The upside is that you’re exposed to a lot of wonderful products for sale and feel good while buying. The downside is the need to be a smart buyer. Check out the cause and the organization to your satisfaction before making any purchases.

#2 – Creative Gift Wrapping
When wrapping gifts try to think outside the box. Be creative and resourceful. Try to reuse items you have on hand. Here are a couple of ideas to get you going:

Potato Chip Bags:
It’s not as weird as you think! Turn the bag inside out and wash it with soap and warm water. Completely wipe it dry. Wrap your item in tissue paper and put item in the bag. Fold the bag ends in and use double-sided tape to seal. This is a good way to wrap irregularly shaped items and the silver look is interesting. Different sized chip bags for different sized gifts!

Tubes:
Toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, wrapping paper tubes – they’re all the same except for length. Wrap your gift item with tissue paper first, then insert into the tube. Either cut paper or cardboard circles and tape to seal the ends shut or just put packing tape over the ends. Wrap the gift in a piece of paper that is 3-4 inches longer than the tube on each end. Twist the paper ends and tie ribbon on twists. This will look more or less like a piece of candy. If you don’t like that look, wrap it with paper and fold down the ends in pleats and tape.

Reading Materials:
Magazines and newspapers are obvious choices for wrapping, but consider old calendars, postcards (wrap these around tubes), and shopping bags.

#3 – Give the Gift of a Book
According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, “Bookcrossing is the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.” At BookCrossing.com, “Where 854,720 people in over 130 countries come to share their passion for books with the world,” you can sign up for free to become a member and learn how to begin registering and tracking books left in public places.

#4 – My Gift To You
Here’s a recipe for butter cookies that I’ve had since I was a child. Easy to make and delicious to eat!

1 cube butter
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and drop by small teaspoonfuls. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy!

#5 – Consider The Present
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present. ~Babatunde Olatunji

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Release the Cracklin’!

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on April 12, 2010| 2 Comments »

“Release the cracklin’! Hands up over your head! Step back slowly now and no one will get hurt!” Those harsh words I aimed at my husband when I caught him red-handed in my kitchen toying with a sweet and spicy creation. After admitting his guilt, he ashamedly lamented that he had been seduced by the sight, smell, and seductive curves of the cracklin’ sweet and spicy bacon spirals I’d made that morning. Yeah, they were hot and twisted pieces of meat, alright . . . just the kind a man likes . . . Oops! . . . better get back on track . . . These very delicious bacon spirals can put a new twist (sorry, I can’t help myself!) on breakfast or brunch menus. With minimum effort you are rewarded with maximum flavor. What could go wrong with bacon, brown sugar, and pepper anyway?

Here’s my adaptation of Tori Ritchie’s Corkscrew Bacon recipe:

12 strips bacon
Brown sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
12 bamboo skewers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line up the strips of bacon on a piece on waxed paper. Put about 3-4 tablespoons of brown sugar in a small bowl and some freshly ground black pepper in another small bowl. Rub the entire length of each slice of bacon with brown sugar and pepper. Turn over the slices and repeat. Stick the pointed end of a skewer into one end of bacon and wrap bacon around and around the skewer until the bacon has reached the bottom end of the skewer. Attach the bacon end to the blunt end of the skewer by poking it through the meat. Repeat with the remaining slices of bacon.

Have a broiler pan with a slotted top or a rack set over a baking pan ready. Transfer the bacon spirals to the baking sheet trying not to let them touch. Bake until bacon is golden brown and crisp, turning with tongs about half way through – about 15-25 minutes total (depending on the efficiency of your oven and the thickness of the bacon strips).

This recipe is easy enough for kids to make. Why not release the cracklin’ for Mother’s Day? Enjoy!

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Baked Potato Slices

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on April 7, 2010| 3 Comments »

Picture stacks of thinly sliced potatoes that have been roasted to perfection – the edges are crisp and brown, but the insides are still moist and tender. Do I have your attention, yet? Here is a no-fuss recipe that my children have always loved. It is a wonderful accompaniment to almost any entree, but goes particularly well with roasts – roast beef, roast chicken, and roast lamb to name a few. This recipe comes from a cookbook that I purchased at a library book sale. I needed another cookbook like I needed a hole in my head, but I rationalized that I could always pass it on to whichever child of mine displayed my pack-rat tendencies! Sorry, my darling Caitlin, but you seem to be the prime candidate right now. The Loaves and Fishes Party Cookbook by Anna and Sybille Pump has served me well through the years and I’m happy to pass this simple recipe onto my children and you.

My Adaptation of Baked Potato Slices:

1/2 cup olive oil

4 pounds (approximately 6 large) potatoes, peeled

1-1/2 teaspoons coarse Kosher salt (or season salt can be used for a tasty variation)

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Fresh herbs, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Brush a 17 x 13-inch pan with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Make sure you are using a shallow baking pan, so that the potatoes roast instead of steam.

Slice the potatoes 1/8 inch thick. Place them in a mixing bowl, add the remaining olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss to evenly coat the potato slices. At this point I sometimes toss in some minced fresh herbs and toss again.

Place the potato slices, slightly overlapping, in rows on your baking pan.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Serves 8.

Anyway you slice them, these potatoes are good! Enjoy!

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Putting the Health Back in Healthy Soup: Pea and Barley Soup

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on April 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Are you feeling like you overate yesterday? Holiday meals have a way of making us eat twice as much food as usual. That’s exactly how I’m feeling, so tonight I’m yearning for something hearty, yet healthy. I decided to try making California Pizza Kitchen’s Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup. The thick texture and savory flavor of this soup are reasons why I order this soup whenever I dine at CPK restaurants during the cooler months.

While quickly reading through the recipe, my eyes did a double-take when it came to an ingredient listing that read “3 tablespoons of salt.” Wow, that’s a lot of salt! According to an article on salt in the current edition of Nutrition Action, the health letter published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, by cutting 1,200 milligrams of salt a day out of the average American’s diet, we “Could prevent up to 92,000 deaths and 66,000 strokes every year. It could keep up to 99,000 Americans from having a heart attack and up to 120,000 others from getting heart disease every year. And it could save $10 to $24 billion in health care costs every year.”

The article lists the sodium levels of favorite menu items at popular restaurants. Lists like these are good for us to read because of the shock value associated with learning that some of our favorite “healthy” foods are really laden with sodium. According to CPK’s website a bowl of Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup has 368 calories, 26 grams of fiber, and 0 grams of saturated fat. That’s not too bad. Here’s the kicker, though, it has 2100 milligrams of sodium! Another CPK favorite Miso Salad – has a whopping 2654 milligrams of sodium for a full serving and 1346 milligrams for a half serving! Recommended sodium levels for most people are less than 1,500 milgrams per day!

When trying the Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup recipe at home, I attempted to eliminate some of the sodium by enhancing the flavor as much as possible by using the freshest and most flavorful ingredients possible. I used organic carrots (the leaves still attached), thyme from my herb garden, and in lieu of water I used two cartons of low sodium organic vegetable broth. I went with the low sodium broth because I figured I could always add salt as needed, but couldn’t take it away once it’s been put in the pot! I also added more onion, celery, and cumin than was called for in the recipe.

Here’s my adaptation of CPK’s Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup:

1 pound dried organic split peas, sorted and rinsed
1/2 cup organic pearl barley
2 quarts low-sodium vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 tablespoon dried)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon rubbed dried sage
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1-1/2 cups diced organic carrots
3/4 cup minced onion
2/3 cup diced celery
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

In a large pot combine the split peas, barley, broth, bay leaves, salt, soy sauce, thyme, garlic, sage, and cumin. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a bare simmer, cover, and cook for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the carrots, onion, and celery. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 – 40 minutes more. Discard bay leaves.

If you do not like your soup chunky, you can remove a third of it and puree small batches of it in a blender and then add it back to the soup pot or you can use an immersion blender to puree some of it while it’s still in the pot.

Ladle into warmed soup bowls and garnish with green onions.

Makes 6-8 servings

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Hit and Miss

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on March 29, 2010| 3 Comments »

The flavor and texture of macadamia nuts covered with a thin Kona coffee glaze deliciously haunts my memory. My parents brought me back a container of these little gems from their last trip to the islands. Ashamedly, I think I ate the whole container by myself. Sorry, family! It is no wonder that when I came across a recipe for Coffee Glazed Pecans on recipegoldmine.com, I immediately had to give it a try.

Coffee Glazed Pecans:
1 -1/2 cups pecans
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons Taster’s Choice Instant Freeze-Dried Coffee
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large skillet combine pecans, sugar, water, Taster’s Choice, and cinnamon; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly until pecans are well-glazed. Spread on waxed paper to cool.

I was disappointed with this recipe. It didn’t have the crunch that I like on glazed nuts and it did not have the intense coffee flavor I expected, especially since I added an extra 1/4 teaspoon of espresso powder.

Another recipe in one of my stacks of recipes was for Tennessee Toffee Cookies. Wanting to turn disappointment into something positive, I incorporated the Coffee Glazed Pecans I had just made into the cookie recipe.

My Adaptation of Tennessee Toffee Cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup pecans, broken (Coffee Glazed Pecans from above)

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg yolk, vanilla, and Jack Daniel’s Whiskey. Add the flour a little at a time until well-blended. Spread the dough very thinly on a greased cookie sheet. Place a sheet of waxed paper over it and roll the dough with a rolling pin to spread evenly on the cookie sheet. Beat the egg white with a mixer until foamy. Spread the egg white over the top of the cookie dough and sprinkle with pecan pieces. Bake at 250 degrees for 55 minutes. Make sure the center is completely cooked and not doughy. Remove from the oven and cut into diagonal cookies immediately before they cool. To remove after they cool, cut again. Makes 2 dozen.

These turned out pretty good. The foamy egg white wash gave the surface a little crunch. The coffee glazed on the nuts dissolved and colored the dough, but it was fine. This is a recipe worth experimenting with a little more. Next time I will add less sugar to the dough, will try rolling the dough out more evenly, and will bake it just a little bit longer. I will also try different types of nuts; I think sliced almonds would be good on this, especially if a little almond extract is added to the dough.

Two recipes were tested with one being a near hit and one being a miss. Two recipes down and a million to go!

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